Some Guys Pizza Pasta Grill | Allisonville & 62nd | Visited: Friday, November 16, 2012

someguyspizza.com

Intro

Trying out new pizza places and blogging about them has been a fun family activity, but to be completely honest, the "critique" part of the process isn't all that enjoyable. I don't enjoy badmouthing people or places, especially locally owned restaurants that have to fight tooth and nail to stay ahead of their nationally franchised and corporately supported counterparts.

Another thing I've noticed (in general) is that I need to do a better job of introducing my kids to new culinary experiences. The fact that I just RECENTLY took my kids to Yats! and, with this blog post, Some Guys, made me realize that I need to make a concerted effort to try new places and things, which I guess is exactly the point of this family blog. ;-)

(Sorry for the preamble.)

For this particular pizza post, we had intended to go to Thr3e Wise Men, but the wait was 45+ minutes, so we decided to try Some Guys at 62nd and Allisonville, which I figured wouldn't be as busy. I hadn't been to Some Guys for a couple of years and, as previously stated, the kids had never been before.

Atmosphere & Service

The wait at Some Guys was 20 minutes, not bad at all for a Friday night. The place was doing a very brisk carryout business, and there's a nice, comfortable waiting area with bench seating and tables—even a waitress who brings beer and beverages if you want. The lighting is darker than most places (moody or romantic, if you prefer).

 

Pizza (breadsticks) 

Wha...?!? No breadsticks?! A pizza place without breadsticks?!? Imagine our surprise and dismay. Instead, we had to opt for cheesy bread. Which was decent. But seriously???! No sticks? Ben was a big fan of the alternative option, though.

As we continue our eating/reviewing/blogging, we always try to order some variation of cheese pizza as a baseline. Plus, Sophia doesn't eat meat (she does eat chicken), so cheese is always a good option.

This particular night, we ordered half cheese and half "House Sausage", which features sausage (imagine that), sweet red peppers, caramelized onions, goat cheese and NO SAUCE. We, of course, added sauce, which made for one delicious pie. Wesley kept going on and on (and on) about how much he enjoyed the flavor, especially the goat cheese. 

The cheese half was pretty good, but it didn't necessarily knock my socks off. It was light on sauce for my taste (but then again, I usually ask for extra sauce). Actually, Sophia said it tasted like blueberries. And when I tasted it, I did seem to have a faint berry flavor. Not sure if it's because she planted the idea in my mind, but it was there. We asked the waitress about it, which, of course, confused her a bit. Nevertheless, the pizza was still decent.

I'd definitely recommend Some Guys as a place to visit, even though I didn't give it a superlative ranking. Next time, I will most likely try out some of their other specialty pizzas.

Verbatims from Benjamin: 

I very much enjoyed the cheesy bread.

Verbatims from Sophia:

Tastes like blueberries.

Verbatims from Wesley:

I really like the goat cheese. I really like the goat cheese. Mmmm...I really like this goat cheese.

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

Dad: 6 

Benjamin: 7 

Sophia: 6

Wesley: 7

Coal Pizza Company | Downtown Indy | Visited: Saturday, November 3, 2012

coalpizzacompany.com

Intro

Ben and I were invited to go to the Pacers' home opener (thanks Bruce!), which included a pregame dinner. We had planned to go to Pearl Street Pizzeria & Pub, just a full-court pass away from the Fieldhouse, but the place was packed (must be game night or something). So we ventured a block or two over to Coal Pizza Company.

I had never tried "coal-fired" pizza—at least I don't think I had—so I was interested and intrigued. Had I looked at their website before the visit, I would have learned that they feature "Neopolitan style artisan pizzas cooked in 90 seconds in our super hot 900 degree custom coal oven."

Atmosphere & Service

I liked the atmosphere very much. An older downtown building (right next door to The Libertine) with two stories of large windows in the front. The downstairs is where a lot of the action takes place, but we were seated in a very nice upstairs area with its own bar and plenty of TVs.

The service, however, was very, very slow. I cut them some slack because it was a Saturday night before an NBA game, but still. In fact, I talked with a few people after my visit, and they confirmed that service is their Achilles heel, even when there aren't 15,000 additional potential customers roaming the streets of Indy.

And I'm glad I hadn't visited their website beforehand, because their 90-second story would have been contrary to the fact that it took us 30+ minutes to get our pies. Jimmy John's brags that they're freaky fast. And they are. Even during a busy lunch rush. Coal may want to reconsider how they position themselves. (Some free, unsolicited marketing advice, from a pizza-loving marketing dude.)


Pizza (breadsticks)

Honestly, Coal should just sell itself on the merits of their food, which was outstanding. Their twisty breadsticks were stellar (I think I'm running out of adjectives, so forgive me if I reuse my descriptors in some of my posts). And they featured three local beers on tap—doing my part to drink local, I had both a Sun King and a Fountain Square Brew Co. 

It's not always easy to compare apples to apples in the world of pizza. We've tried to always order cheese (which Sophia likes), but there are obviously variations in flavor from the traditional to more artisan options.

At Coal, Ben and I ordered personal pizzas. His was pepperoni (regular cheese, nothing fancy) and I ordered the Tuscan, which was fennel sausage, roasted pepper, cracked red pepper and hand-pulled mozzarella. It was pretty spicy for pizza, but delicious. Ben's was a tasty (albeit straightforward) choice as well.

Crust, especially with the fire/coal oven variety, is always a delicate balance of crispy and doughy. Sometimes, this type of pizza is dry with no flavor to its dough. Coal's crust, however, got it just right—even though we had to wait a long time for it to find its way to our table.

Verbatims from Benjamin:

I like it. The crust is really good.

I don't want to be late to the Pacers game. :)

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

Dad: 6.5 (If you're looking for a good pizza joint downtown, definitely give Coal a try. Hopefully the service will be better for you.)

Benjamin: 6.5 (I sense a trend with Ben's ratings.)

No receipt photo this time, because Bruce picked up the check. Which is always a good thing.