When a new restaurant opens near my office, my coworkers start circling like vultures. They swing by the store front daily and pepper each other with questions, "Does anyone know when they are opening? Will they deliver? Do you they have frozen yogurt?"
Last week everyone was buzzing about the newest arrival to the neighborhood, Crush Pizza.
Crush took over the space formerly occupied by The Upper Crust, right at the corner of Broad Street and State Street.
You can spot the new pizza joint by its twinkling sign out front.
Inside, the restaurant is actually bigger than it looks from the street. It has a handful of tables in the front and then a long, narrow area where the line forms.
The decor is fun and mostly red.
Crush is a bit like the Pinkberry of pizza. You pick a base pie and then you can add as many toppings as you like. You watch the pizza being made right before your very eyes.
The day we went the restaurant had only been open a week, but we noticed that each time one of us ordered something, the pizza makers had to turn around and read the menu to check they actually knew what was on every pizza. Though concerning, I cut them slack for it only being week one.
After your pizza is topped, it goes into the oven. I've seen these exact ovens before at Forcella in New York City. I think they look like giant apples.
While waiting for my pizza I noticed that Crush keeps a stack of wood just beyond the cash register. In fact, while we were there I saw them replenish the wood for each oven.
When your pie goes in, it is topped with a number. When I first saw this on another customer's pizza I thought it was a table number, but it's actually to keep everyone's orders straight.
The pizza pictured above was mine. I chose the pesto base and topped it with with tomatoes, artichokes and kalamata olives. I asked for sun dried tomatoes originally, but the pizza maker clearly didn't hear me since he tossed cherry tomatoes on there with zero hesitation.
Though my tomatoes were wrong, the pesto itself was awesome and made the whole pie.
One of my coworkers ordered the spinacia, a specialty pie, which is cherry tomatoes, feta cheese, spinach, extra virgin olive oil, garlic cream sauce and mozzarella cheese.
Another friend choose the pesto base and covered it with a mix of ricotta cheese, red onion and mushrooms. She agreed the pesto was amazing. I snuck a bite of her pie and it was the best one at the table. The mushroom and red onion combo was superb.
Lastly, our fourth friend went with the classic margherita and added ricotta cheese. They burned her first pizza so she wound up having to wait for a second one.
Despite the first burnt pizza, she said the new one was, "Really great, but I wish they had goat cheese as an option. I also wish they had whole wheat crust as an option."
No matter what toppings we chose, we all agreed the perfectly light and crispy crust was what made each of our pies so delicious.
The bottom line is, Crush's pizza is fantastic, but they are still working out the kinks with the service. The staff is still getting to know the menu items and how to work the cash register. The wait times are also much longer than advertised (their ad claims you get your pizza in 90 seconds). If you are leaving your office to head to Crush, budget yourself at least 15 minutes.
Also be prepared to pay up, as my pizza with three toppings was $11 dollars. That's not including anything else, not even a drink to go with it.
Have you tried Crush Pizza yet? What did you think?
