Friday, January 17, 2014

Coals Artisan Pizza-- Best in the Derby City?

I've been told that Coals Artisan Pizza, 3730 Frankfort Avenue in Louisville, KY (or is it in St. Matthews? It's certainly close to downtown St.M) in the upscale shopping complex that has grown up around the old Vogue Theatre, is the closest to true New York style pizza you'll get in that fair city.  I dunno if that's true, since Louisville has a LOT of pizza places, but I do know I love Coals' pizza even if it isn't "Louisville Style", which as I understand it is the piling on of toppings without any extra cheese or sauce. (Bearno's is supposed to be a good example of Louisville style, which I always loved.  There was a Bearno's here in downtown Indy for awhile but I believe it has closed).  

Coals has a coal-fired brick oven that supposedly operates at almost 1000 degrees, which produces a delicious toasty, crispy crust in about four minutes.  It's thicker than the cracker-thin crust you get at Donato's or with Pizza Hut's Thin 'n Crispy, yet it is every bit as toasty and crisp.  The array of gourmet toppings you can get in both red and white pizza is quite varied, and several combinations of toppings are named after Louisville neighborhoods.  We had lunch there and I had the Clifton, which is a red pizza with a combination of onions, peppers and cheeses as well as Italian sausage that had me singing its praises, much to the dismay of other diners because I don't sing very well.  Some of the user reviews in TripAdvisor said this place is pricey, but the lunch deal was really decent-- a 10" personal pizza and a large side salad for $8.95  The salad was extremely fresh, and it was showered with diced cubes of mozzarella cheese.  Some reviews said the tables were too close together, but I didn't find it to be any worse than Cracker Barrel!  The orgasmic climax to this, my dream pizza experience was that they have a FULL BAR!  Woohoo!  What's not to like?  Huh?  Huh?  Mangia!

No comments:

Post a Comment