APeZZA | Corner of Fall Creek & Brooks School | August 24, 2012

apezzapizza.com 

Intro 

Week two of our pizza exploration project and, once again, Ben and I are the only two up to the challenge. This week: APeZZA, which is located between Scotty's Lakehouse and Mama Bears near the Geist Marina.

I had tried APeZZA on one previous occasion, based on a neighbor's recommendation, but hadn't really made an effort (for whatever reason) to try it again.


Shame on me, really, for not supporting a local restaurant so close to my home. Actually, after our dinner, I decided to do some post-meal research on the joint. Turns out, it's owned by Steve Wechter, who ran one of my all-time favorite burger joints (Famous Jacks), which shuttered operations a few years back. Read more about Steve here, if you're so inclined.

Atmosphere

It was a lovely Friday evening, so Ben and I opted for the patio seating. Of course, they also have seating inside as well. The place has a good vibe overall, some of which was probably spillover from the always-crowed Lakehouse next door.

Service

Start with one small pet peeve. They give you free refills, which is to be expected, but they make you fill up your own cup (even the first time). So we had to tromp from the patio into the restaurant to fill (and refill) our cups. I even asked for an ice water (to chase down my beer) and the waitress handed me an empty cup at my table. Not very customer friendly, in my opinion.

Very nice server, but it did take awhile for our pizza to arrive. But had I done my research beforehand (or had they done a better job of marketing themselves), I would have known that's to be expected. An AtGeist.com article informed me that their motto is "life it too short to eat cheap pizza".

And apparently their menu includes the following message as well:

"We could be like everyone else and get your pizza to you in 20 minutes. But if we did that our pizza would taste like the other guys. And honestly we just wouldn’t feel right about that."

But who reads a pizza menu that closely?

If you ask me (thanks for asking), I would recommend that the servers inquire whether it's a person's first time (often the case at let's-do-things-a-little-differently type restaurants like, say, divvy in Carmel) and explain the deal. They may also consider your classic table tent, which is a great place to communicate your brand message.

Pizza (and breadsticks)

Since this our second review, we're learning some things along the way. We have followed FourSquare recommendations both times, which is a good place to start, but may not want it to drive the entire decision-making process.

The breadsticks? In a word: stellar.

Larger and dough-ier than Hot Box stix (a good barometer for breadstick quality, in my opinion). They were a tad over-buttered, but delicious nonetheless. The cheese and marinara sauces were both top notch.

For the pie, we asked the waitress what the most popular choices were and she said Meat Lovers and the "Unmatched", which comes loaded with pepperoni, sausage, bacon, mushrooms, onions and green peppers. We opted for the latter, which was really too much after splitting an order of breadsticks between the two of us (one adult and one nine year old).

(Since I'm not a food critic, and I'm new to this, I forgot to take a picture of the full "Unmatched" pizza. Here are the messy remnants...no wonder I was so stuffed.) 

Of course, my teenage daughter (who didn't want to come along) texted me during dinner and asked if we had ordered yet (we had), so I got a cheese pizza to go for her. I had a slice of the cheese later  that evening, and it was really, really good.

On both pizzas, the crust was fantastic, a little browned on the edges with a fresh, wonderful flavor. I was trying to be adventurous by ordering the "Unmatched", but should have stuck with something a little less heavy (the green peppers and onions also take you down a very specific flavor path as well).

Verbatims from Benjamin:

"I didn't know it smelled so good because I was eating."

"Spicy (because of the sausage) but splendid." (I was challenging him to use different adjectives.)

"Almost as good as last week."

Rating (out of 8 possible slices, with 4 being average)

The breadsticks were, as I said earlier, stellar. Best in class. The pizza, had we ordered correctly, was outstanding. And the crust was distinctive and delicious. While Ben said he felt Gramboli's just edged out APeZZA, I would give APeZZA a 7 out of 8 slices (tied for first, in my pizza-blogging book). 

I would definitely recommend APeZZA, but be sure to order wisely.

We will be back (as soon as our tour de pies concludes...maybe sooner).