| rev:text
| - Pizza is one of those things like hot dogs and certain other foods that some people feel they have to make sweeping claims that the style they know/prefer is the "best" and anything else is unacceptable. It always makes me wonder why they would go to the trouble of going to a restaurant other than their "favorite" and then giving it a bad review because they didn't like it.
Anyway, this review of Upper Crust Pizza isn't going to rate the pizza as "best or worst", it will simply tell you what I experienced and you can choose if you want to try it or not.
We got there a little early in the evening last night and it was almost empty, not looking good. But within an hour the place was bustling. Let's look at some of the key things restaurants are rated on:
- Service. Could not have been better. Our server (from Jersey complete with cool accent) was awesome in every way. Tremendous energy, personality and just a lot of fun. Score: 5
- Price. We had a "small" pizza (which at 16" is what every other pizza place calls a "large"). It was $10.99 plus toppings (@ $1.50 each). This would be considered a great price, BUT their special was you could buy any pizza and get any pizza free. That came out to be probably the lowest price pizza in town! Score: 5
- Ambience. The place is clean, funky, fun and not pretentious. What I loved is that the bar was in a totally separate room so all the loud drunks were far away from the dining area. There are large-screen TV's on two walls, but they didn't overwhelm the room and thankfully the sound was turned down. The background music was classic '40s vocals played at a reasonable volume. Score: 5
- Food. I know pizza. I've eaten virtually every type and enjoy variety. I usually try to order my pizza the same way on the first visit to any pizza place ... pepperoni, sausage & mushroom ... which allows me to compare "apples to apples". If you've ever been lucky enough to eat at America's first pizzeria, Lombardi's in NYC, you will find that Upper Crust is an incredibly accurate comparison to the Gold Standard. I found out why. Virtually everything is hand-made on the premises ... dough, sauce, sausage, even the cheese. Who else does that? And that difference can be discovered with the first bite. To my taste, it is flawless. Our second pizza was the Upper Veggie (artichoke hearts, mushrooms, onions, basil pesto, to which we added ham). While far from being a "traditional" pizza it was awesome. Score: 5
- Beverages. Extensive wine list paired with an equally extensive on-tap & bottled beer list. Score: 5
So there you have it, Upper Crust earns a rank of 25. What's that? I can't add up the individual scores? Sigh. Ok, have it your way. But PLEASE don't come back with any reviews whining that their pizza isn't as good as Domino's or that it's not deep dish. If you do, I'll whack ya one!
|