Big Woods Pizza

Sure, Nashville is a tourist-driven town with an extremely high tchotchke to person ratio, so the restaurants will pretty much all fall in line with the rural Midwestern charm theme prevalent throughout the town, country dumplings and beef stew and whatnot. That's not really our bag, but we figured we could wince through some mediocre pizza and get on with our day.
We found Big Woods Pizza much better than that. Our choice: Emily's Garden pizza, with fresh enough veggies spread across it. The crust was above average, soft and crusty without being chewy or dry. The pizza itself had more veggies than it could hold and wasn't too greasy. The accompanying salads were excellent -- a variety of greens and vegetables. Many restaurants, especially pizza and beer joints, are satisfied enough to rip open a plastic bag o' salad, dump it in a bowl, and let customers play around with it until the main event. Our salads, though, were quality ingredients, better than we've gotten at restaurants that claim to be classier. As a result, we left impressed with the thoughtfulness and choices that went into our food, and we would definitely recommend Big Woods to other Nashville visitors and pizza lovers alike.

Great beer, pizza and service! Our waitress named Dannyn made the experience even better. Order a gourmet pizza, sample some beers and even take a growler to go.

I love the original Big Woods Brewery just down the alley so we were excited to try out the pizza location. We will for sure be back but we could have had a better experience (see 'Room For Improvement' below) - but I think they will continue to grow and get better. I did notice that they debuted 2 new pasta items to their menu so it looks like they are in fact in the continuing to grow phase.

Location/Parking: Like all of Nashville, this is set up to park elsewhere and to walk to (just like all the shops). For parking details you can visit the Nashville tourism site to see all of the free places to park. Or, for $4 you can park at the Historical Society lot just 1 block north - money supports the not-for-profit museum.

Set-up: They are handicap accessible and although they do have a fair amount of seating, I would not recommend them for a super large group as there is no guarantee that you could all be sat together. That being said they have at least 3 six-tops to start with. They are a child-friendly environment but only for kids that can remain in their seats (some of the walk-ways can get a bit busy) - also better (given the open room) for non-criers.

Room For Improvement: 1) Dough - not proofed long enough 2) Cook Time - ours was undercooked and gummy (note, the 'sequoia' size pizzas around us were golden and looked great, but our 'signature' size pie was way undercooked) 3) Water - ew, guys, get a filter and also, rinse out your cups better, you basically served me bleach-water - not ok 4) Take-Out - they have the set-up by the cash register to have a couple of pies ready for a 'by the slice' set-up - I think that would be a great idea for those who want either a smaller portion or who are on the go walking around Nashville

What They Do Right: 1) Toppings - good selection and they break out of just having the traditional toppings 2) Beer - naturally, they you have access to the brewery beer here too 3) Space - what a great way to get others to enjoy Big Woods Beer, the original location (just down the alley) I am totally in love with but seating is limited - this is a great way to expand plus it is family friendly 4) Salad Dressings - they have a few dressing that I believe they make themselves, we had the ranch and the creamy balsamic...both were super tasty.