The Pizza Locust

Sometimes, life throws you some surprises - like when you find out a friend is holding his three-year old’s birthday party in a brew pub. (He is British, so I suppose it shouldn’t be that surprising.

Last week, we reviewed Old Chicago Pizza, which happens to be owned by Rock Bottom, so I wasn’t really surprised that Rock Bottom also serves pizza. My expectation was that it would be very similar to Old Chicago’s. However, I was in the mood for pizza and their pepperoni pizza sounded interesting, so I decided to add Rock Bottom as a reviewed pizza.

It turns out the assumption that they serve something similar to Old Chicago is completely false.

Rock Bottom isn’t a proper pizza place, and they don’t make customizable pizzas, in fact, they only make four pizzas, and only in one size. However, since one of the four pizzas is an “ordinary” pepperoni pizza, it qualifies for review.

Their pepperoni pizza is described as follows:

Not one, but two layers of seasoned pepperoni with a blend of four cheeses and fresh California tomato sauce.

The size of the pizza is not documented, but it measured in at 10″.

When this pizza arrived, it was clear that it was loaded. Loaded with pepperoni and loaded with sauce. The crust was more of a Neopolitan-style, although thicker, so perhaps California-style would be more appropriate and well-cooked through. The most unique aspect of the pizza was that it was also covered with black peppercorns - presumably that’s what “seasoned pepperoni” means. Whatever the logic behind the peppercorns, it worked well. It was a good pizza.

I don’t know what the four cheeses in the cheese blend were, but they were good, with a nice complementary flavor.

The pepperoni was good, and the peppers really enhanced their flavor. They also lent the entire pizza a peppery zing. Kids might find it too spicy.

The sauce was really the star of the pizza, it was very full-bodied and flavorful. I can’t say that I could compare it to any sauce I’ve had before on a pizza. There was a hint of something familiar and long-forgotten, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

The weakest link was the crust, and it wasn’t that weak. Although the literature says it was a “hand-stretched Honey Brown Ale crust”, there really wasn’t a lot of flavor in the crust. It was thoroughly cooked, and in no way detracted from the rest of the pizza.

This pizza also had something else going for it, too: At $9.29 for a 10″ pizza, it’s one of the cheapest per square inch I’ve had for some time. In this time of insanely inflated flour prices, that’s a good thing.

I’ll also take a moment to comment on the children’s birthday party. Although you might not think of it as your first choice, it worked out fairly well. Rock Bottom’s children menu includes a build-it-yourself pizza, in which the children are brought a stretched dough, sauce, cheese and pepperoni. They make the pizzas at their table, and then they are taken away and fired in the ovens before being returned to the kids. This is what they did for the birthday party, and the kids really loved it.

There’s no play area or place to put up decorations, but the parents can get tanked and take a tour of the brewery.

Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery
National Chain
Review location:
14205 S 50th St.
Phoenix, AZ 85044
(480) 598-1300

10″ Pepperoni Pizza, $9.29 or $0.12 (0.118) per square inch.

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