Mesa Pizza: U of M

            It was only a matter of time, as any University of Minnesota student will tell you, Dinkytown, and probably Mesa pizza, will be on their agenda on any given Friday or Saturday evening. Located in the heart of Dinkytown on 4th st SE between 13th and 14th, just north of the U of Minnesota Campus. Because of this, Mesa draws a large student audience.

            Due to its convenient location in the heart of the "party areas" of the University of Minnesota campus, in the middle of Frat Row and the Dinkytown neighborhood, Mesa pizza stays open late most nights, 2:30am Monday-Weds, 3:00am Thurs-Saturday, and Midnight on Sundays to be exact. If out late Thursday-Saturday you can always expect a large line that generally stretches down the street, especially when the weather is "nice." They do also deliver 'till 2 or 2:30 depending the day which is a nice option, but then you have to order a full pizza in the only size offered, a 20 inch.

The Pizza: 
            Many U of M students will disagree with me, but this is where I get to be that Chicago pizza snob.... Mesa pizza has a huge variety of types of "pizza" (if you can call it that) that you can get by the slice at a very reasonable price, $2.25 per slice of cheese/pepperoni, or $3.25 for "specialty." Very reasonable when you see the size of the slice that you are getting. Their crust is also very good, actually reminding me of Gigio's Pizza: Evanston, with a good amount of flour and a pretty thin crust with a good crunch. Unfortunately the cheese used can be a rather bland, same goes for the marinara sauce.

             What draws many of those who like Mesa pizza is actually the thing that sort of ruins it for me... The specialty pizzas. Mesa offers slices of pizza such as Mac 'n Cheese, Burrito, Philly Cheesesteak, Taco, Chicken Penne Alfredo, Chicken Parmesan, Pesto Penne, and more. For a Chicagoan, this is pretty ridiculous. If you like this, I can respect your own views, but personally I want pretty standard toppings, standard veggies, spices, and standard meats. That can be a bit boring, I understand, but Mac n' Cheese pizza sounds pretty gross to me.

                I may be speaking in generalizations here, but for a Chicagoan, available pizza toppings should be sausage, pepperoni, cheese, various veggies such as tomato, spinach, onions, peppers, olives, etc.. Not mayo, mac n' cheese, pesto, taco beans...... etc..... ick.... blasphemy....

Photo Credit: CBS Minnesota 

                  While these pizzas are definitely unique, in my opinion the ingredients don't taste fresh, at least they haven't when I have tried them, but that could be due to the fact that, because they have so many varieties, they end up making a pizza of each variety, or half a pizza, and if people don't order them for a few hours they just heat 'em up later, definitely not great in my opinion.

The Grade:

                  I will admit, when you are out at 1:30am Mesa pizza is a good option to have, probably healthier than the big mac you would end up purchasing from the mcdonalds down the street. When you compare Mesa to proper pizza places that aren't solely serving the inebriated college student however, you see the obvious differences in quality. While the crust may be quite good, the sauce, cheese, and toppings are rather mediocre. Because of this, I am giving Mesa Pizza a 3/10.

3/10

Black Sheep Pizza

            Well guys, its been almost a full semester, but I have finally found a phenomenal pizza place in Minneapolis. Frankly I wasn't sure it would happen at all, so this last friday was an awesome surprise for me. Not meaning to be a snob (though I know I am a pizza snob) but I generally take recommendations with a grain of salt, not because I don't trust most peoples tastes, but because a lot of people haven't really seen just how different phenomenal pizza is from franchised-cheap-ingredient-pizza intended solely to make money.... so when I heard a lot of recommendations for this place I took it with a grain of salt. In the end however, I have to say these recommendation were spot on.

Logistics:
           Black Sheep (www.blacksheeppizza.com) now has two sit-down locations, the original being in the warehouse district of downtown Minneapolis, and a newly opened restaurant in downtown St. Paul. They offer Sit-down service as well as carry-out and delivery. As for the restaurant itself I can only speek for the Minneapolis location as that is the only one I have been to.

           Black Sheep uses coal fired ovens to cook all of their pizzas, I'm not an expert on cooking pizza, but I know it tasted great, whether that was their ingredients and recipes or the coal, or both. The general atmosphere was nice, very open with wood tables and booths with a nice natural finish wood bar and dark walls that added a nice intimate feel, supported by an open kitchen area. It was a pretty small place so expect a short wait if you are going at a busy time, unfortunately I am not sure if they take reservations.

The Pizza:
              Once seated, the menu is relatively easy with two size options for pizzas, offering a small 12" and a large 16" with a great selection of toppings. The prices are a bit high, around 20 dollars for a relatively loaded large pizza, but considering the quality of pizza this place offers, combined with the downtown location it is a good deal. I went with four other hungry people and we finished off two large pizzas, which happened to be the perfect amount.

               I ordered my usual test pizza (generally something with sausage) for thin crust, sausage, fresh tomato, fresh onion, and fresh basil. I choose these particular toppings for a variety of reasons, one, it is a good indicator of the quality of the restaurant, if they don't have fresh basil, chances are they will not be out-of-this-world good, furthermore, because sausage is my favorite topping I have to test it at every pizza place I go. We also got a large half sausage half pepperoni.

The Sausage, Onion, Tomato, and Fresh Basil Pizza

The Good:
               Black Sheep pizza really surprised me, the pizza came out quick and well cooked, absolutely LOADED with toppings. The ingredients used were all great. The dough was amazingly light with the perfect amount of crunch and a good taste while being very thin. The fresh tomatos were just that, very very fresh with a great taste. They added the perfect amount of cheese that was well cooked to not get in the way with flavor, but to add a very nice accent to the pizza over all. While the sauce used was essentially strictly a tomato sauce with very little seasoning, if any at all, which leads me to some very good news: THEY HAVE FRESH BASIL that they include on the pizza regularly!!!! Now, I usually like a very seasoned flavorful sauce, but with the particular toppings we got on the pizza shown above, the sauce provided a great base for the other ingredients to really shine through and show off their fresh taste. Another surprise on this pizza was that it appeared that they put sea salt on the crust which adds even more flavor to the already great, light, thin crust.

The Bad:
               While there wasn't much bad, there were a few things, number one being that some of the crust sections were a bit too burnt. I'm okay with a bit burnt, but there was a bit much. It could be because coal burns at a higher temperature than other ovens or because the coal is centralized on one side, the side that is closest to the coals starts burning a bit early before being turned. While an issue, it really wasn't too significant of a setback. Another negative was that the pepperoni looked pretty oily, however A. I didn't actually have a piece of the pepperoni (but the meat slices were HUGE, looked great if you are a pepperoni lover), and B. pepperoni is generally always oily just because of what it's made from. Also the sausage pieces were in slices, you get a bit more of it it seems than with just chunks of sausage, however I do prefer the chunks... again not a big issue at all.

Overall:
              Black Sheep Pizza truly surprised me, I was not expecting to find pizza that I would prefer over... frankly..... anything in Chicagoland, but I have to say this is some of the best thin crust I have tried. It is definitely different than most of the thin crust found in Chicago, as I think this takes a bit more of an "authentic italian" approach, but it really is a great alternative. It is a bit spendy, but go with a decently large group of people and you will be stuffed and have great pizza, tax, and tip paid for with just around $10 a person, very reasonable.

               Because of the phenomenally original, fresh, and delicious pizza offered by Black Sheep Pizza, combined with the convenient downtown location, decent prices, and quick service, I am giving Black Sheep Pizza the highest ranking so far of any Minneapolis pizza, and frankly the highest rating I think I will give to any pizza outside of chicago.... I am giving Black Sheep an 8/10.

8 / 10

Toppers Pizza

         Tonight my roommates and I decided to get some pizza from a place that is new to campus, Toppers Pizza. Toppers is a national chain with restaurants in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois (oddly), Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, and North Carolina. These locations include five "restaurants" in Minnesota, two of which being in Minneapolis and one in St. Paul.

          We decided to order two larges for the four of us, one sausage (my standard test for pizza places) and one Hawaiian. They did have a deal with two two-topping large pizza's and an order of cheese sticks for $25 plus tax. The first impression over the phone of the pizza place is not a good one, including a rather stupid opening call menu, frankly I don't know why they don't just bring the customer straight to the staff, but they insist on having their phone menu... whatever. After that there is the price, but I'll talk about that later... Then they quoted 40 minutes for delivery for the two large pizza's. Now I get it for delivery most of the time taking a bit longer than normal, but we live literally 5 blocks away from this restaurant, and while it arrived a bit earlier than 40 minutes, it was a bit odd for it to supposedly take 40 minutes on a sunday... long story short, not a good start so far. But then we gotta move on to the pizza....

The Pizza: Unfortunately, again I do not have any images of the pizza, I suppose it looks pretty close to the pictures on the website... www.toppers.com

The Good: I suppose the easy to see good is relatively quick delivery, though they quoted longer, and large options for pizza, they have a small, a standard 14" large and then an 18" party size. The tomato sauce they use was rather good, well seasoned with a fresh taste. The crust and dough also were well raised and fluffy if that is what you like, personally I'm not crazy for huge fluffy crusts.

The Bad: Well this list is significantly longer than the one above, the cheese was rather tasteless, as was the crust for the most part other than a bit of flour. The sausage was seasoned pretty well, however the meat quality itself was rather poor, the only taste in the sausage was that of the seasoning and the texture was pretty bland overall. The pizza also started out pretty oily, even looking at the pictures on the website you can see quite a bit of glisten on the pizza, for most foods sure you want it to glisten when you are taking pictures but flaunting that your pizza is oily? Have to disagree with that one. Also, as said above I'm not crazy for a very fluffy "thick" thin-crust, if you like that, it is VERY fluffy and I can see how some people would like that but it definitely isn't my cup of tea, I will say the dough/crust did give a very fresh feel which I give them credit for.

            While Toppers isn't trying to be the best pizza in the world, I could respect them trying to be a good "fast food" pizza place, but their normal prices are absolutely ridiculous. We were quoted $16 and change for a large one-topping pizza. I'm sorry but for the quality of pizza you get that is ridiculous. In fact, if it wasn't for their two pizza + cheese bread deal we would have said adios and hung up the phone. I am all for paying good money for pizza, but for a pizza that reminds me of Papa John's or Domino's, 16-17 for a single topping pizza is ridiculous.

            I was considering giving Toppers a 3, but because of the price point and the quality of food they deliver I have to downgrade them to a 2/10.

2/10

Leaning Tower of Pizza: University

I have actually eaten here twice now, and I will say I'm glad I did not write the review after the first time I tried it. The first time I ate from Leaning Tower we got a large "sausage" pizza as well as pineapple (I think? I'm not huge on pineapple pizza so I stuck to the sausage...), and it was okay, but the second time my roommate decided to order the "Leaning Tower" pizza, and it was definitely better than the straight sausage.

The Details: Leaning Tower has two locations in the Minneapolis area, one at 25th and University Ave SE just east of the University of Minnesota (it's actually located in one of the ends of one of the campus-run apartments) and one location in Uptown. I cannot speak for the one in Uptown as I have never been there, but the one on University has a full bar with what looked like some nice selections, though I've only gone there for carry-out pizza. They do have some outside seating at the University location, though now that we're almost through October that shouldn't really be used until late spring... (Gotta love Minnesota winters.)

The Pizza: Unfortunately, I don't have any crappy cell phone-camera pictures for you guys, so this review will be all text (sorry)! 

Leaning Tower offers a small 10" pizza, as well as a large 14", no medium which is fine because if you are pretty hungry two people can knock out a 14" pretty quick, if not starving it should feed three normal people. The first pizza we got was just plain sausage, I won't dig too deeply into this, but if you want sausage, get it with some other things on the pizza as well. It seams to me that they use ground beef instead of a standard italian sausage, which is fine... just don't expect it to have too much spicing/flavoring. The crust is pretty good, nothing to write home about but does not take away from the pizza. Luckily where they strive is their toppings as well as their sauce... The sauce very good by itself and has some nice seasoning to it, it's not just plain crushed tomato's, +1 from me. The most recent pizza had a pretty good amount of cheese almost to the point where it was a bit hard to work with, but that did allow me to teach my roommate some plate "techniques" to not make a mess of the slice you are trying to get... (more on this in a later post maybe?).

The second time we ordered as said above we got the "leaning tower" specialty pizza which comes with sausage, pepperoni, celery, onions, and green peppers. All of the toppings tasted very fresh and cooked perfectly, everything was cooked enough but the veggies still had a nice fresh crunch to them. The sausage and pepperoni goes very well together, the pepperoni offers the spices desired from the sausage.

Finally, their price point.... most of the specialty large pizza's are $18.00 before tax, leaving you around $20 out the door... While I understand that we are not in Chicagoland, back home 20.00 will get you within change found on the floor of your car to a large Lou's deep dish sausage pizza, a pizza that will not only be the best pizza you've ever had, but will also feed 4 hungry people. Because of this, and the fact that they are slacking a bit on the plain sausage and their crust isn't extremely unique, I am giving Leaning Tower Pizza a 5/10. I will most likely be back as it is a 3 minute walk from my apartment and it is better than papa johns or domino's to me, but the price is a bit of a turn-off.

5/10

Red Savoy Pizza: Uptown

           This last weekend I finally tried another pizza place in Minneapolis, called Red Savoy Pizza in Uptown. It was a nice little place on the corner with a friendly staff and a few tables in a back room. It even had the classic pizzeria red and white checkered tablecloth, which gave this place some extra legitimacy. The staff was attentive and all around it was a fun place to be in with OK prices.

           They did however have some issues, mainly they burnt our first pizza to the point where they wouldn't even bring it out and offered to make it again and not charge if we were OK with waiting, which we obviously were. Now I'll say this, after working in a restaurant for close to five years now, this stuff happens... they handled it very professionally and we didn't mind waiting for another, the fact that they comp'd the whole meal was great of them and shows the management for this place knows what they're doing.

Details: Red Savoy Pizza has 3 locations around the St. Paul/Minneapolis area. As said earlier, we went to the Minneapolis Uptown location which is at the corner of Hennepin and W 24th Street. This location did pick-up, delivery, dine-in.

           Now onto the pizza... We got a large sausage/onion/tomato pizza, the large is a 16" if I remember correctly, and was definitely enough for three people, way too much for the two of us.

                         The pizza oddly came on a sheet of wax paper and a lunchroom-looking tray
               

                                               Close-up of their sausage/tomato/onion pizza

The Good: This pizza really shows some potential in my eyes, mainly in their Sausage and the sauce they use. I have to say, their sausage taste reminded me very much of the sausage that Lou Malnati's uses but with a little more of a spicy kick. Definitely got that part right. The sauce was a delicious sweet marinara sauce that added a nice touch, it had great seasoning that honestly would have been great even if it was just the crust and sauce. Finally, the crust was perfectly crispy with just enough flour on the bottom that reminded me a lot of Piero's pizza in Highland Park, Illinois (which I will get to reviewing in the next few weeks), yet another thing they got right.

The Bad: While they did a lot correctly, there are also a few things they got wrong. Firstly, they brought the pizza out on a lunch tray with a piece of wax paper between the pizza and the tray. It is definitely original, but I think there are many things that could have done the job better... when you tried to get a piece from the center you ended up ripping the paper beneath, just not as easy as it could be with a round metal pizza tray that they could bring it out on. There were also a few things that I asked if they had that they didn't, the main one being fresh basil leaves to put on top of the pizza (if you ever want to make a great thin crust, fresh tomato slices, sausage, onion, and fresh basil over the top, add some oregano and you have a great pizza). Basil leaves are kinda tricky though because I suppose not many places here will have that regularly, as I'm not sure if people here have really tried that much and fresh basil will go bad quickly. The biggest problem however was the cheese, on the outside pieces they put a nice amount of cheese. The pieces in the center were a different story though. It was much thicker and overpowered the taste of their delicious sauce and the other ingredients.

             Overall I was quite impressed with Red Savoy, their crust, sausage, and sauce mostly made up for some of their issues and their sausage reminded me a lot of Lou Malnati's, any pizza place that can do that deserves a lot of respect. They handle their business very professionally and take care of their customers. I am giving Red Savoy Pizza a 6/10. While it may seem low, keep in mind the highest rating i've given to a Chicagoland thin crust place was 8.5, so 6/10 is not too shabby. I will probably be back to this place soon!

                                                                          6/10

This. Is. NOT. Deep-Dish!

           listen good outside world, this is not deep-dish!!!!

Gino's East of Chicago

Location: Chicagoland

            I'm gonna start this post out by saying this, with Chicagoan's, I bet you if you asked 20 people on the street at random where their favorite pizza place is, 5 would say Lou's, 5 would say Gino's East, 5 would say Giordano's, and 5 would say Pizzeria Uno (or Due)... That being said, we all know now that I am one of the 5 that would say Lou Malnati's, so keep that in mind during this review.

            Note: believe it or not, I have no affiliation with Lou Malnati's other than the fact that I was raised on it, I promise you, I don't get free deep-dish shipped to me every time I mention them (unfortunately, Lou's if you're reading this send me an email and I'll send you my school address!).

            Gino's East is almost as well known as The Bean, or the John Hancock, the SEARS tower (notice... not the Willis tower), or Italian Beef, it is a very well known Chicago pizza, and because of this a lot of tourists end up going to Gino's (while great, I still think they should try the others too, coughLOU'Scough). 

            The Pizza: Gino's East offers a nice alternative to Giordano's and Lou's, I have friends who like it more than the other places, and I have friends who don't, It depends what style of deep-dish you like. Gino's chooses to use a much saucier... sauce...... there aren't usually chunks of tomato or anything like that, while some may prefer this, I'm one for tomato chunks. Their cheeses and other ingredients are obviously great and fresh, and they do have some good sausage, which is pretty similar to Lou's in that they use a patty of sausage, not just small pieces. In my opinion the sausage could have used a bit more flavoring, but it isn't bad by any means. Their crust is also quite different than Lou's, they seem to use less butter and more corn-meal in their crusts, if you like that thing, it is outstanding, I personally go for the buttery crusts. Their crust is also a lot thicker at the ends than Lou's crust is, if you like their crust it means you get more of it (yay!), if you don't, meh. The first time (in a while) that I ended up at Gino's we ended up getting two cheese pizzas (don't ask why....) and honestly, while I'd still take deep-dish cheese pizza over, honestly, most any other thin crust (except for a few), why get cheese pizza at a deep-dish place? The second time however, we got one sausage and one veggie pizza... One thing Gino's does have over Lou's, their veggie pizza is less watery, therefore staying crispier throughout your meal, so if you like veggie pizza definitely try out Gino's East.

                   Picture from Gino's East of Lake Geneva: http://www.ginoseastlakegeneva.com/

                The Details: Gino's East has 10 Illinois locations, and oddly, 3 out of state locations, including one Wisconsin restaurant and two Indiana locations. One of the reasons Gino's sees so much attention from tourists (other than it is genuinely good pizza) is that they have a location just east of Michigan Avenue, north of the river (The Magnificent Mile) on E. Superior. This location makes it very easy to quickly leave the trail of shopping and sight seeing and stop for some great Chicago pizza, while you have to go a few extra blocks west to get Pizzeria Uno, Due, and even farther for the Lou's on North Wells. Gino's downtown has a large restaurant, but they also have a lot of people to move in and out, If you are going on a thursday-sunday I'd expect to be waiting a bit, it is worth it though. They also have a Lincoln Park location on the northern section of one of the the many chicago 6-way intersections at Lincoln, Diversey, and Racine. This location has outside seating and some great deals on pizza's on Monday (not sure if that is just this branch or the whole franchise?). Prices are on par with Lou Malnati's, though going to the downtown locations you will be paying extra so keep that in mind, still, their downtown price of about $27 for a large deep dish sausage pizza will feed three very hungry people, 11 dollars a person with tip and tax is still a bargain for great food if you ask me. Gino's does also ship pizza's nationwide, and prices on that is very similar to that of the competitors as well.

              Gino's East offers a great tasting deep-dish pizza that is authentic Chicago deep-dish, anyone trying deep-dish should definitely try it out as it truly is personal preference between the big four. With good locations and competitive prices, portions, and a great taste, I'm giving Gino's East 8/10. It isn't my favorite deep-dish in the world, but I will NEVER say no to making a trip to one of their locations if it's an option.

8/10