Slices of Indy

MacKenzie River Pizza Company | 4939 E. 82nd Street (near 82nd & Allisonville)
Visited: Friday, June 1, 2013

mackenzieriverpizza.com

Intro

LDOS! LDOS!!

So I picked up the kids (sans Wesley, who had already started his summer break "hanging" with his friends) and was just going to head to the nearby and never-miss Puccini's to celebrate the fact that... "School's. Out. For. Summer!"

But Tortilla and Bean really wanted to try something new and continue to add to our pizza blog. Of course, I gladly acquiesced and started driving towards Castleton with no particular destination in mind.

As we headed into the eye of the Friday night traffic storm, I remember Mackenzie River, which is located in the same spot that many restaurants before it have gone to go out of business (Painted Plates is the only restaurant that I can remember, but it seems there have been at least five other eateries to open and close their doors there).

Since the place seemed to be still open for business, we decided to give it a try.

I assumed this place was a chain, and it is, but it only has 18 locations (which is just a few more than Muncie-based Greek's, for example). According to their website, MRPC can be found in Montana, Idaho, North Dakota, Washington and, go figure, Indiana. One of these things is not like the other, but I guess if one of these things has enough cash to plunk down for franchise fees and upstart costs, you can associate yourself with the Great Northwest. Or at least their pizza.

Since the company is privately held, it's technically still independent. And my original intention of this blog was to keep things as locally focused as possible, but we were hungry. So let's eat.

Atmosphere & Service

The interior of the restaurant was fun, if not overly contrived. With lodge-like decorations, fake trees and Christmas lights. It was pleasant enough, with ample outdoor seating (which was closed due to stormy weather).

The service was decent and they seemed to have about 75 servers donning MRPC tees and cheery grins. Tall booths provided a cozy shelter from the busy and noisy surroundings. Overall, it had a good vibe for a Friday night family outing.

Pizza (breadsticks)

After 13 blogs about pizza, I feel like I'm running out of new ways to say the same thing—this sauce is so...saucy.

But this visit was anything but enjoyable, which helped open up the descriptive possibilities.

The epitome of mediocrity.

Hand-tossed disappointment.

Crust. Rhymes with bust.

Even though I'm the official "author" of this blog, the kids' verbatims (below) are spot-on and better/funnier than anything I could have written.

Onto the specifics:

The sticks were probably the least flavorful I have ever tasted. No garlic. No corn meal. No nothing. And the sauce was, well, uninspired. (Again, see the verbatims for the kids' awesome insights.)

The pizza was just meh (my apologies to the AP Style Book). We ordered half BBQ chicken and half cheese, and neither provided that initial (or delayed) oh-my-God-this-pizza-is-so-good moment. If I had to describe the crust, and I really had to think about it, I would say it tasted like Pillsbury breadsticks (the kind you get in a tube in the refrigerator section of the grocery store). Just boring and plain and overly doughy.

In their defense, I was talking with Kurt, one of my co-workers, a few days after our dining experience, and he said that he and his family really like the pizza and go there quite often. To each his/her own, I suppose. But based on my head-to-head comparisons, MRPC just doesn't measure up.