A small little pizzeria near just inside where I-10 and 45 meet. We had the strange idea to go there for dinner on a Wednesday night from southwest Houston. At the worst, it was going to take us 50 minutes. Thankfully, it shortened to just over 30 minutes by the time we finally headed out.
I had emailed them to see if we could eat anything there before we made the trek out. As a family, we're allium-free vegetarians. On top of that, our youngest has multiple food allergies including wheat, eggs, avocado, peanuts, tree nuts, pineapple, and kiwi. We're on the hunt for a local pizza place that he likes. Right now, the only pizza he likes is in San Antonio and our goal is to find a place that isn't 3 hours away. I normally don't go to eateries with expectations, but as we're trying to find a pizza place for the toddler with food allergies, we compared it to the pizza he likes: gluten free pizza that doesn't look like or taste like gluten free pizza.
I received an email back promptly from the owner that was very helpful, so we planned a visit and there we were. Big kudos to that! Most places ignore my requests to advise what we could eat at their establishment.
The place is unassuming, located on one side of a small building, next to Brussels cafe. There is a small, shared lot at the back of the building and limited street parking. When we left, someone had temporarily parked in a handicap spot, waiting for a spot to free up. They only take reservations for parties of 6 or more. A busy bar is against one wall with enough seats for maybe 10 people. There are 3 tall tables (think counter/bar height) with bench seats and around 5-ish tables at regular height. In short: the capacity isn't large. Most of the tables were filled by the time we came and we were seated at the tall tables after we said it was okay as everything else was occupied.
As it was a school night, I only ordered what we could order with no substitutions. That is, we got:
Margherita Pizza - we got 2 and they had perfectly chewy dough with a crisp crust. The cheese was great and topped with basil leaves. No complaints! A classic that was well done.
Gluten-free with cheese and the DOP sauce - this looked like a GF pizza. Completely flat but they did sprinkle with dried oregano on top, which is new to us. My youngest took one bite, ate the cheese, and was "done." He proclaimed he was hungry when we got back home.
My husband, who is very "meh" about food agreed with me that the pizza was good. My toddler... was okay with it. My eldest liked it and ate one slice (she had eaten before we left and doesn't eat much so I count that slice as a win). Pricing was comparable with the pizza place in San Antonio. That is they were around $20 per pie, plus an additional $5 for GF. So we like them but what knocks off a star is the fact that our toddler wasn't as much of a fan.
Service was fairly good but mostly concentrated at the very beginning and very end. They only provided 3 plates and didn't make eye contact and only checked up on us after we moved onto the second pizza. By that time, my husband (the one without a plate) was well into using his napkin as a plate and deemed it unnecessary to get an actual plate. We opted out of dessert due to the time and the kids were getting restless, which was dangerous with how high up they were. I'm short and it's a decent drop for me back down to the ground. There's a bar at the perfect height to rest my feet when you're seated though, so it's not at all uncomfortable. You also get great view into the kitchen and special oven they have if you sit in the tall tables!
I wouldn't mind going back, but when we do, I'd definitely try their grilled pizza but with the DOP sauce subbed in... and more toppings. I noticed a lot of the other patrons ordered these attractive looking cocktails from the bar. My kids wanted "juice", too. Hahaha. I've never been to a place where at least one person at every table got something from the bar in addition to the people seated at the bar. I still remember: table to the left got a Bellini and the right got a Negroni. We don't drink, so I wonder if they have mocktails or if that would be frowned upon.
Another thing to note: they don't seem too family friendly. No high chairs BUT they did offer plastic cups with lids for the kids after we ordered, which is good enough for a place that doesn't seem to get too many kids.
Also, I did try a slice of the GF pizza. It was not bad at all! Pretty good as far as GF goes and I've sampled my fair bit at this point. Though flat with no rise, the dough did have a chew. If you're wondering what my toddler's favorite GF pizza looks like, it basically looks like the regular pizza... but he doesn't get an allergic reaction to it. So sadly, we're still on the hunt for him, but this is a solid place to try. read more