Local Pizza
Grant Robert Gulovsen
Domino's, Pizza Hut, and Papa John's, regional franchises like Monical's,
and more local late-night delivery places such as Dewey's, Prime Time and
Gumby's. I have been very pleased with Papa Del's, Bonnie Jean's and
Jupiter's. Are there any other local pizza places that anyone can recommend?
Sincerely,
Grant Robert Gulovsen
Customer Service
Webmaster
Shampoobanana.com
gulo...@shampoobanana.com
http://www.shampoobanana.com
Tim Dellinger
>As a college town we are overrun with national commercial franchises like
>Domino's, Pizza Hut, and Papa John's, regional franchises like Monical's,
>and more local late-night delivery places such as Dewey's, Prime Time and
>Gumby's. I have been very pleased with Papa Del's, Bonnie Jean's and
>Jupiter's. Are there any other local pizza places that anyone can recommend?
For a non-traditional pizza, you might try The Bread Company on Goodwin
near Krannert. I think you can only get the pizzas in the evening. They
are basically single serving pizzas. They're tasty, even if they are a
touch pricey and the wait staff tends to ignore you. Oh, and come prepared for
pretentious toppings. I love 'em.
--
Tim Dellinger www.ews.uiuc.edu/~tdelling
tdel...@uiuc.edu
Doug McDonald
>
>
> For a non-traditional pizza, you might try The Bread Company on Goodwin
> near Krannert. I think you can only get the pizzas in the evening. They
> are basically single serving pizzas. They're tasty, even if they are a
> touch pricey and the wait staff tends to ignore you. Oh, and come prepared for
> pretentious toppings. I love 'em.
My office is 100 yards from them, so I try them often.
So close, so far. That's my take. They are trying to be fancy
and trendy and unique. In that they succeed. Good, that is
a different matter. So close. Sometimes they can get so close
to a fabulous combination, but somehow they seldom actually hit
it right. Something missing, something too much and too odd,
it is very frustrating!
One of the prime duties of a "quality" food critic is to tell the
reader exactly what causes him to give the overall appraisal
he does. I'd love to do exactly that for this place's
pizzas, but I just can remember the exact reason I though
so many pizzas were close to great but lacking somehow. Many of
them lack meat, of course, amd that's a problem; I can like
meatless pizzas but they have to have a big dose of animal fat
in some other form ... in so many cases I have thought "this
would be fabulous with another 1/2 cup of Parmesan". In other cases,
they had a good base, and I might think "this would be great with
a good dose of fresh basil (or some other hreb.)
The best example of the Bread Company and their failure is their
cinnamon folls: if they just put the standard foncant icing
on them, they would be wonderful, especially when warm. But they
refuse to do this, even on some fraction. I must have asked
for this 100, 200 or more times (literally) and they just shrug ...
"the owner won't allow it, even though we could sell twice as many".
The owner must have some sort of bee in her bonnet about not
wanting to please the customers. She must think she knows
better than they do. Ray Timpone DOES, she doesn't.
Doug McDonald
fay aron charles
that many of the local pizza joints sell stuffed pizza to meet the demand.
Papa Del's is good (but everyone knows that, and they're expensive!).
Garcias claims to have stuffed pizza, but don't try it unless you are
wanting a bad experience. My personal favorite is Prime Time. Not
healthy, just greasy, good, and cheap. Just beware- it takes 30minutes
to cook, and often another 20 to deliver. If you're eating by yourself,
or in more of a hurry, get their calzones. It's only $5, and it's
two meals for the average eater. Best of all, it's open late (even the
one off campus stays open until 2:00!) Does anyone know of other places
in town that have stuffed pizza?
People recently have been raving about Papa Murphy's (by Schnucks in Urbana).
They make each pizza to order, but give it to you frozen. You have
to provide the oven. They, too, have a lot of unusual topping combinations.
If you live in a Frat, you can get a "Greek Special" from Papa John's. I
think it's currently $6 for a large one topping pizza, but it might have gone
up again. (It used to be $5 when I first got here). I don't recommend
them at all, I just wanted you to know about the special.
I like Bonnie Jean's pizza on fourth and Daniel. It's expensive, but fairly
good. Try their "Cajun sausuage".
The Jolly Roger DOES have the best thin pizza in town. It's not really
something that I look for, but if I was ever in the mood for thin pizza,
it's where I would go. It's aufully hard to find, though. Take Main to
Broadway to Water Street. It's definately better than Monicals. (Are
you sure Monicals is a "regional franchise?" We have a couple back home
in Peoria, and there's one in Tolono too.)
If you want to go to Garcia's, go after 11pm. (It's hard during the
summer, because they close at 12.) After 11, they serve the slices
1/3 larger. Buy by the slice only.
Pizza Garden in Savoy is the only place I know of with a pizza buffet.
It seems like the pizza usually sits out too long there. But, their
salad bar and deserts are the best.
"Grant Robert Gulovsen" <gulo...@uiuc.edu> writes:
>As a college town we are overrun with national commercial franchises like
>Domino's, Pizza Hut, and Papa John's, regional franchises like Monical's,
>and more local late-night delivery places such as Dewey's, Prime Time and
>Gumby's. I have been very pleased with Papa Del's, Bonnie Jean's and
>Jupiter's. Are there any other local pizza places that anyone can recommend?
>Sincerely,
Tim Dellinger
>wanting a bad experience. My personal favorite is Prime Time. Not
>healthy, just greasy, good, and cheap. Just beware- it takes 30minutes
>to cook, and often another 20 to deliver. If you're eating by yourself,
>or in more of a hurry, get their calzones. It's only $5, and it's
>two meals for the average eater. Best of all, it's open late (even the
>one off campus stays open until 2:00!) Does anyone know of other places
>in town that have stuffed pizza?
I'm a fan of PTP also. IF you do get PTP, then stuffed is the only way to
go. And although it's good, their sauce isn't nearly as tasty as it
should be. Feel free to add oregano and basil to spice it up.
Does it feel wrong to spice up food you paid for? Well, some people think
so, but I don't. I love ordering a cheap cheese pizza and then throwing on
loads of carmelized onions that I cooked myself.
As to the PTP calzones: make sure you order 'em with mozzerella cheese only.
They have this strange idea that american cheese goes well in a calzone,
which it doesn't. The calzones are huge, and definitely worth the money.
Daniel Weber
> It's definately better than Monicals. (Are
> you sure Monicals is a "regional franchise?" We have a couple back home
> in Peoria, and there's one in Tolono too.)
If my memory is correct, that Monical's in Tolono is the first Monical's and is
even in the original building. The others are outgrowths of it and can be found
in many towns in central IL.
I'm glad to hear other people like Prime Time: my work group gets pizza once a
week and to a person they prefer Papa John's over Prime Time. BLECH. I agree
Prime Time's sauce needs something, but thinking Papa John's is better???
-d
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Jenny Gerbi
> I'm a fan of PTP also. IF you do get PTP, then stuffed is the only way to
> go. And although it's good, their sauce isn't nearly as tasty as it
> should be. Feel free to add oregano and basil to spice it up.
I'm not such a fan of PTP. Why? Bland, bland, bland. I am a fan of NY style
pizza myself (you can actually taste it!) but do like the giordanno's stuffed,
for example. All the pizza in this damn town is too bland for me. This might
sound crazy, but I used to sort of like the garcia's slices.. and they had lots
of stuff you could spice them up with. I'm not happy they aren't in campustown
anymore.
Most pizza here tastes like it was made with ketchup. I test pizza like ice
cream: simplest first. Cheese only: if that is terrible, toppings will just not
help. It's like ice cream: try the vanilla first. No matter what they put on it,
if the ice cream sucks the whole thing will too.
It seems every time I get my hopes up about pizza here I get it and it just
sucks. Quite honestly, my favorite pizza in town is sbarro's broccoli and
spinach stuffed with sauce on top. It's really not bad. Not bland (due to the
sauce) either. Sauce is *key*. I know I"ll never get good crust here. -J