The Pizza Shoppe

In the effort of maintaining full disclosure for all of my reviews (as few of them as I have at the moment...) I want to let everyone know that I have been ordering food here for approximately 20 years.  I have done everything in my power to divorce my review from nostalgia in every way and I think that this is a fairly unbiased piece on this nice little local pizza joint.

It's a small storefront that you can easily miss as you are careening down South Country Road at any speed, especially if you are like most people driving on that road and doing 60 mphs!  There is a recently renovated interior with a few tables for a sit down and TV's on both ends of the aisle.  I have eaten in maybe 4 times in the last 8 years, as I usually prefer to have my pizza at home.  On the odd occasion I have eaten there, I have always mildly enjoyed watching the peoples coming in for their dinners and listening to the various conversations and cell phone calls people are on in a public place.  The dining room area isn't anything more than what I have already described, except that you are always going to be aware of the weather as the front door is never too far away no matter where you sit.  That said; let's get on to the food!

It's a typical pizzeria that offers a selection of pastas and pizza, sides, and a few standard fare dishes like cheeseburgers and whatnot.  I have personally tried almost every combination of pizza toppings that don't include vegetables (except for onions.) and always found their pizza to be crisp, cheesy, and with a decent sauce.  They do a good job with the cheese/sauce/bread ratio and I have never come away from having two or three slices thinking that it was anything less than "good pizza."

I adore their garlic knots and their mozzarella sticks.  I don't care if they are purchased frozen and microwaved or however they prepare them, I will order one of those or the other whenever anyone in my place is ordering from there regardless if I am hungry or not.  Case in point, my lady tried their Bacon and Bleu Cheese burger platter the other night and her sister got a Cheese Calzone.  I had to throw in a small Mozzarella sticks even though I had eaten two hours prior.  Those sticks lasted 22 minutes after they arrived even though I was trying to save them for the next day.  The burger got two thumbs up from her and the calzone was given high marks for size, quantity, and taste.  A good half of that did not get eaten that night!  It's cool though, I'm still slicing off pieces of it two days later and tossing it into the toaster oven to snack on.

In the hundreds of times I have had them deliver to me, I can honestly
say they have made some kind of mistake or forgotten something less than three times and I have called once or twice in the last 7-8 years out of a hundred orders to ask how much longer will the order  take.  The reason for such a good percentage is honest appraisal of delivery times.  They don't say "Thirty minutes" then have me calling them at the fifty minute mark and then again at the sixty minute mark.  They give a good assessment on the time, and then they get there around that mark.

Overall, this is a good local pizza place.  Nothing overly pricey and the place does not try to be more than what it is.

Had a pizza "blind" tasting party to compare 3 local pizzas and this was the winner! Good sauce (not to acidic) and tasty cheese. BEST garlic knots. Love their cinnamon zeppolis (wish it wouldn't sell out so quickly).

Ordered a sicilian pie from this place for lunch on takeout on a Saturday.  When we got to my brothers house, about a 3 minute drive away,  we discovered the bread was stale, obviously something left over from the night before that was just reheated. I was very upset and will always make it a point not to go there for our family's pizza.