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| - Eddie's...half divey NY pizza joint, half trendy Mediterranean restaurant and hookah bar. Not surprisingly it ends up doing a half ass job of both!
I have been to Eddie's maybe a half dozen times in the last year or so since it is right around the corner from my place, but this was the first time I had been there in maybe 5 or 6 months. They have done some remodeling since the last time I was there. While the first few times it seemed more like a pizza place that had hookahs, now it is more of a hookah bar that sells pizza. One very wise move was putting a wall between the ordering counter and the kitchen so it now feels a bit more like a real restaurant and less like your high school cafeteria. Most of the seating is now couches (that it looks like the bought used from your grandma's basement on craigslist). Although the couches looked comfortable (although possibly disease ridden) I decided to sit at one of the two actual tables set out for their occasional lunch customer.
If you can put up with the somewhat schizophrenic vibe (and bumping hip hop blazing from the speakers) the food actually wasn't that bad. The lunch specials include Pizza, Philly cheese steaks, wings, or gyros while the regular menu is filled mostly with Mediterranean options, many of which were vegan. I ordered two slices of pizza and a Pepsi which came to $5.50, but I did have to wait about 15 min for them to make a new pie. The slices were HUGE, combined about 1/3 of a 16" pie. The pizza was good, but nothing special...just a bit better than your typical mall food court pizza. While waiting for my pizza to come out however I did notice that $2 would get you a huge piece of fresh baklava or cheesecake. I think next time I'll go with one slice and save room for dessert!
In the end there are clearly better pizza joints and almost certainly better Mediterranean places and hookah bars in Tempe, but if for some strange reason you're in the mood for both then Eddie's is your place. If you're not sure where Eddie's is it is at the corner of Dorsey and Apache in the same shopping center as Pita Jungle and Filiberto's. If you have trouble finding it just look for the cloud of smoke coming from the brood of wannabe hipster high schoolers that are always hanging out in front.
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