Joey's Pizzeria

This week we decided to make our way down to Joey's Pizzeria on N Classen and NW 18th Street. One of the first positive things we noticed after walking in was the choice of music - 80s classics such as "Love Is a Battlefield," Prince's "Kiss," and "Living on a Prayer" played as we ate. While that doesn't impact the way we judged the pizza, it made the overall ambiance totally rad.

So, how was the pizza?

The Cheese Pizza
The hand tossed crust was sweet and chewy, but not in an uncooked dough sort of way. In fact, everything about the pizza had a sweet taste, which made for a richer, heavier pizza all around. The sauce was sweet, with minimal herbage, and perfectly distributed. The cheese was a sweeter mozzarella than we were used to, but it worked extremely well. The crust was topped with sprinkled parmesan cheese and the herbage that is usually found in the sauce, and opinions here are divided on how effective it was.

The Pepperoni Pizza
Essentially, it was just a cheese pizza with a special guest star. The pepperoni was mild to the point of having no real impact, much like a fading celebrity's cameo on a hit show.

The Surfer Dude
The surprise hit of the night, and a pizza that would work equally well as a dessert or an entree, the Surfer Dude is actually a Hawaiian pizza - with Canadian bacon and pineapple - sprinkled, nay, imbued, with cinnamon and sugar. "Joey's has found the perfect balance of pineapples and Canadian bacon," and this is coming from a guy who generally refuses to eat pineapple pizzas on philosophic ground. The light dusting from the cinnamon and sugar takes the already sweet crust and sauce to new levels. We highly recommend getting this pizza. As of now, and this is from a combined total of more than 50 years of pizza eating experience, this is the definitive Canadian bacon/pineapple pizza.                           

One of the great things about Joey's Pizzeria is that because the pizza is so sweet, it's much more filling than other pizzas of the same size. A medium pizza (12") would be enough to fill up two people. And at $8.99 for a cheese or $11.99 for the Surfer Dude, that really can't be beat. Another added bonus is that the staff is friendly and tried their best to make us feel truly at home. And honestly, any place that can put up with us loitering for 45 minutes after the meal is over gets additional points.

Joey's offers many more specialty pizzas, and we will be back to try them, but do yourself a favor and try their Surfer Dude pizza. You won't be disappointed.