Jockamo Upper Crust Pizza | Irvington | Visited: Saturday, October 15, 2012

jockamopizza.com

Intro

Based on a recommendation from a friend, we decided to work Jockamo Upper Crust Pizza into our pizza review mix. A little background, straight from their website: "Jockamo Upper Crust Pizza opened in Irvington on Indianapolis’ eastside in October of 2007. The owners, Mick McGrath and Nancy Duncan and Bob and Laura Stark, lived across the street from each other in Irvington and knew the neighborhood would support a local pizza place that used fresh ingredients, made their own dough and sauce from scratch, and placed an emphasis on great food and service."

And their logo is a chimpanzee. In a tuxedo. Eating pizza. Sounds VERY promising.

Atmosphere & Service

The vibe was great for a weekend and it was fairly crowded, although we only had to wait a few minutes to get seated. There's lots of artwork from local artists hanging on the colorful walls (always appreciated). I'm a big fan of redevelopment areas/neighborhoods and try to support businesses that have the chutzpah to commit to their community by putting their own skin (in this case, dough) in the game. Despite the weekend crowd, the service was prompt, attentive and friendly.

Pizza (breadsticks)

Sticks were decent. I'd give them a B or B-minus. But certainly passable for sticks of bread as a prelude to chimp-approved pizza.

The pizza? Well, I hate to say this, but the pizza was very disappointing. Not sure what style or flavor they were going for, but it really didn't resonate with the Hollands. To be a little more poetic about it, the pizza seemed to lack soul. Sophia said it tasted like frozen pizza (ouch!). The crust had a crispy pizza-oven edge to it, but it was a little too "cracker-y". Neither the cheese nor the sauce made much of an impression.

As much as I was rooting for this place to blow us away, so much so that we'd be willing to drive the long distance every now and again to support this local restaurant, I'm sorry to say that wasn't the case. My apologies, Mr. Well-Dressed Primate.

Verbatims from Benjamin:

Pretty good. (Ben's very forgiving as a pizza critic.) :-)

Verbatims from Sophia: 
 
Their pizza is just all right.

Taste's like "Jack's" pizza, the frozen kind.

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

Dad: 4.5  (I bumped it up half a slice because of the vibe and the commitment to the Irvington neighborhood. If I ever went back, I'd probably try something else on their menu other than the pizza.)

Sophia: 4  

Benjamin: 6.5

Monical's Pizza | Fishers, Indiana | Visited: Saturday, September 22, 2012

www.monicalspizza.com

Intro 

While I started this blog with full intention of visiting only local, independent pizza joints, I'm easily swayed by my kids (one of the reasons I'm doing this blog in the first place).

Sophia suggested Monical's, a pizza place based in Bradley, Illinois, with 60ish locations in Illinois and Indiana (and one in Wisconsin). According to my in-depth interweb research, all 13 Indiana locations are franchisee operations.

Of course, Sophia suggested the restaurant and then didn't join us because she was off doing teenager-y things (mall and a movie). Monical's tagline is "Home of the family pleaser, so 3/4 of the Holland family (Benjamin, Wesley and Brice) headed off early on a Saturday evening to check this place out. 

Atmosphere

Monical's has a typical resaurant-in-a-strip-mall feel to it, probably because it's located on the end of a strip mall. They seem to do a fair amount of delivery and carryout business (judging by their large counter and open kitchen) and the decor was colorful with exposed ceilings with the metal ducts and rafters painted black.

 
Like I said, it was a weekend, but (for some reason) it wasn't that busy and didn't seem to have a very good "energy" to it. So, I'd have to say the atmosphere would qualify as: meh.

Service

Fine. Teenager server. Not overly friendly, but acceptable. Side note: Wesley and I went through the Taco Bell drive through the other night and were greeted by one of the friendliest restaurant employees I've ever encountered. GREAT attitude, oozing with personality and ENERGY (even at 10:30 at night). I actually went online to answer the survey on the back of the receipt just so I could compliment the young man and give him some props. C'mon, restaurant and service industry. Hire more guys like Aaron G. He should go apply at Monical's, where I could give him a tip instead of an anonymous "attaboy" online.

Pizza (and breadsticks)

First things first: this place doesn't sell beer. Whaa...?? I actually wasn't going to have a beer that night but the fact that I COULDN'T have a beer was very disappointing. No, I don't have a problem with beer. THEY'RE the one's with a problem.

The breadsticks, as appropriately described by Wesley, tasted like pretzels. Strange. I guess it was because the sticks tasted more like bread instead of dough and had salt on them instead of cornmeal or garlic butter. They tasted okay, but I don't think I'd order them again. Weird. How do you mess up breadsticks?

After talking with some people after the fact, I guess we should have ordered the hand-tossed instead of the pan pizza. As I took my sixth bite of pan pizza, I realized something: I don't really like pan pizza anymore. This pan pizza was actually not too bad (not overly greasy on the crust). But as I reflect on it, I think I burned out on pan pizza going to Pizza Hut after every LN football game and basketball game during my high school years. I feel much better now that I've shared that deep (pan), dark secret.

Actually, overall, the pizza was decent. We ordered half cheese and half "Mighty Meat". The cheese half could have used more/better cheese, but the MM side was quite good. A good balance of flavors, not overly doughy. Again, I think I'll have to try the hand-tossed some time and make an addendum to this review.

Verbatims from Benjamin:

The cheese (pizza) is very cheesy.

Verbatims from Wesley:

Breadsticks are exactly like eating a soft pretzel. Very sourdough-y. Not what I'm looking for in a breadstick.

Their pizza is just all right.

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

Dad: 5 out of 8 (decent pizza, bad sticks, meh atmosphere)

Wesley: 4 out of 8 

Benjamin: 6.5 out of 8