Attempt #87 - Kalona Brewing Company

Venue Outside

The Venue
405 B Ave.,
Kalona, IA 52247

(319) 656-3335

As seen on Travel Iowa, the Kalona Brewing Company has existed since 2012 serving beer and pizza. The clean restaurant, has a drinking lounge to the right and a restaurant area on the left side along with an outdoor seating area in the rear. There are booths as well as tables, and it is kid friendly. A stone oven cooks up the pizzas while the chief tosses the dough up into the air, like you see in the movies. 

Venue Inside Facing Brewing Company Section

The wait staff is incredibly friendly and easy going. It is a good idea to call ahead of time for weekend nights with a larger group. Forty-five minutes in advance on a Friday night and they still found room for a group of nine.

The Pizza

Chicago Style: No

Crust Thickness: Thin

Venue Kitchen

Menu: http://www.kalonabrewing.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Menu-Aug-2018.pdf

Participants: 5 (plus 4 children)

Pizza Ordered: 6

Sizes Offered/Ordered: Standard 12” pan
Crusts Offered/Ordered: Standard Thin Crust

Pieces Cut: Triangular

Meat Lovers - House-made sausage, beef, pepperoni, mozzarella, red onion, parmesan ($16)

Pesto Prawn - Shrimp, roasted peppers, tomato, red onion, feta, mozzarella ($15)

Sausage & Fennel - Sausage, caramelized fennel, grapes, red pepper flakes, mozzarella ($14)

Bacon & Scallion Pesto - Bacon, onion, scallion pesto, crème fraîche, mozzarella ($14)

Buffalo Chicken - Chicken, buffalo sauce, blue cheese crumbles, mozzarella, roasted peppers, pepperoncini, caramelized onions ($15)

Pepperoni - ($11)

The Verdict

Sauce: Good flavor and well placed.

Cheese: Wonderful cheeses that were fresh and unique. The meat lovers had large slices of a dryer mozzarella that was very tasty.

Menu

Crust: The rim was bready. The middle was slight soggy, but held up well.

Toppings: High quality with a great unique flavors.

Final Comments/Considerations: Everyone, even the kids, loved this place. No wonder it was on Travel Iowa.

The wait took some time, but the dough was fresh and homemade, while the pizza toppings were fresh and unique. For a thin crust you couldn't ask for a better one. In fact, it rates the highest to date for the toppings category, and the fourth highest for the overall category. If you can spare the time to drive out to this lovely town, its worth the effort!

Here are our ratings, where 1 = worst and 10 = best.Overall 9.00

Cheese 9.20

Sauce 9.00

Topping 9.80

Crust 8.20

Venue 9.00

Bacon & Scallion Pesto, $14

Buffalo Chicken, $15

Meat Lovers, $15

Pepperoni, $11

Pesto Prawn, $15

Sausage & Fennel, $15

Slices

Favorite: Meat Lovers

Attempt #86 - Big Grove (Solan, IA)

Venue Outside

The Venue
101 W Main St,
Solon, IA 52333

(319) 624-2337

Big Grove is an up and coming brewery in the eastern Iowa area. Two locations exist, one in Solan, Iowa and the other in Iowa City, Iowa. Only the one in Solan has pizzas. The retaruant has a bar area, plenty of booth and table seating indoors, and an out door patio for additional seating. Free sample are suggested, as beer goes along well with pizza.

The Pizza

Chicago Style: No

Crust Thickness: Thin

Menu: http://biggrovebrewery.com/menus-solon/

Beer

Participants: 8 (plus 9 children, 2 infants)

Pizza Ordered: 10 (all menu pizzas)

Sizes Offered/Ordered: Standard 12” pan
Crusts Offered/Ordered: Standard Thin Crust

Pieces Cut: Triangular

Pizza Margherita - San Marzano Tomato, Fresh Mozzarella, Basil, Olive Oil, Sea Salt ($12)

White Sausage - Crème Fraiche, House Made Fennel Pork Sausage, Fresh Mozzarella, Red Onion, Scallion, Marinated Tomato, Fennel Pollen ($14)

Traditional Sausage - House Made Fennel Pork Sausage, San Marzano Tomato, Fresh Mozzarella ($13)

Salumi - Pepperoni Style Sausage, San Marzano Tomato, Fresh Mozzarella ($13)

Menu

Heirloom Tomato And Smoked Burrata - Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Fresh Cracked Black Pepper, Fleur De Sel ($15)

Roasted Mushroom - Rotating Selection Of Locally Grown Mushrooms, Garlic Confit, Fontina Cheese, Arugula ($14)

The Verdict

Sauce: Good flavor and well placed.

Cheese: Average per the style they were serving.

Crust: The edges were great, but every pizza was soagy in the middle. This was the major downside commonly stated among participants.

Toppings: High quality with a great balance of flavors.

Final Comments/Considerations: I loved the flavors of the mushroom and the white sausage pizzas. They truly were unique and worthy of a order. The Salumi was also great, but predictable (who doesn't love meat, right?). The margherita and sausage were average, and the heirloom/burrata made the pizza soaking with juices. If you are going to try, I strongly suggest the White Sausage, Roasted Mushroom, or Salumi.

Kids Pizzas - 2 Cheese and a Salumi

Here are our ratings, where 1 = worst and 10 = best.
Overall 7.50

Cheese 7.88

Sauce 6.75

Topping 7.88

Crust 6.00

Venue 8.81

Favorite: White Sausage

Heirloom Tomato And Smoked Burrata($15)

Roasted Mushroom ($13)

Pizza Margherita ($12)

Salumi ($13)

'

White Sausage ($14)

Slices

Traditional Sausage ($13)

Attempt #85 - Mirabito's Italian Restaurant

Venue Outside

The Venue
40 Sugar Creek Ln,

North Liberty, IA 52317

(319) 459-1342

Back in 2011, I had a groupon for a Sushi place nearby. Being that it was closed up, I quickly choose Mirabito's for a meal that night. Since I saw they served pizza, it was been on my mind to take the group down to give it a try. The restaurant serves pasta, some traditional Italian dishes, and pizza. The cannolis and lemon cake were amazing!

Venue Inside

As far as seating goes, there is tables with chairs. Although this place isn't very big, they can pack the house if needed. They do not take reservations, although they will do your best to accommodate your party needs.

Even with pizza, they serve you warm bread, with olive oil, pepper/salt, and cheese. Although typical of Italian restaurants, this act of hospitality was a refreshing delight!

The Pizza

Chicago Style: No

Crust Thickness: Standard

Menu: https://www.mirabitos.com/eat/

Participants: 7 (plus 4 children)

Pizza Ordered: 5 (all menu pizzas)

Sizes Offered/Ordered: Standard 12” pan
Crusts Offered/Ordered: Standard Crust

Pieces Cut: Rectangular

Menu

Verrazano - Spicy sausage, cappicola, cherry peppers, caramelized onion and roasted garlic ($15)

Brooklyn's Best - Pepperoni, cappicola, prosciutto and Italian sausage ($16)

Ortaggio - Portobello muschroom, artichoke hearts, spinach, roasted red pepper, caramelized onion and roasted garlic ($16)

Clubland - Alfredo sauce, diced chicken, prosciutto, sliced tomato and red onion ($16)Pepperoni - ($12)

The Verdict

Sauce: Good flavor.

Cheese: Fresh, they also came around a .

Bread with the meal

Crust: The buttery crust was great, and not too thin. The spicy (Verrazano) had soggy middle pieces, but otherwise it was a hit.

Toppings: High quality. These toppings made the day. Traditional American meets Italian flavors! This is where the spicy (Verranzano) and Meat Lovers (Brooklyn's Best) really shined!

Ortaggio, $16 (Veggie)

Brooklyn's Best, $16

Clubland, $16

Final Comments/Considerations: I was most surprised and how filling the pizzas were. I was expecting more of a thin crust and leaving me 8 pieces in, and still feeling hungry. If you haven't tried out Mirabito's, I strongly recommend it.

Here are our ratings, where 1 = worst and 10 = best.Overall 8.50

Cheese 7.79

Sauce 8.00

Topping 9.79

Crust 8.71

Venue 8.86

Favorite: Brooklyn's Best (similar to a Meat Lovers)

Verrazano, $16 (Spicy)

Pepperoni, $12

Slices

Attempt #84 - Geyer's Oven

Entrance

The Venue
1259 Rohret Rd SW,

Oxford, Iowa 52322

(319) 828-4257

There are two Pizza farms in the eastern Iowa area that I am aware of. Stone wall (which we attempted back in Pizza Attempt #76 [September 2017]), and Geyer's Oven. From our knowledge, Geyers is the more popular, and closer to Iowa City, location. The Menu varies and during the summer months, one can find updates on their Facebook page.

All you can eat, however, you will need to wait in line. They usually run until 7:30 PM. $12 per adult, kids under 6 are free.

Long Lines

The Pizza

Chicago Style: No

Crust Thickness: Thin

Menu: https://www.facebook.com/Geyers-Oven-282157461899595/

Participants: 4 (plus 2 children)

Pizza Ordered: All

Sizes Offered/Ordered: Standard personal pan
Crusts Offered/Ordered: Standard Thin Crust

Pieces Cut: Triangular

Pepperoni/Cheese
BBQ Beef & Caramelized Onion

Meat Lovers – Sausage, Bacon, Pepperoni

Menu

Ham, Black Beans, Spinach, Balsamic Glaze & 3 Cheese Blend

Sriracha Chicken with Pickled Red Onion

Southwestern – Black beans, green onions, cheddar, cilantro, taco sauce

Mean Green – With Spinach, green onion, garlic oil, 3 cheese blend

The Verdict

Sauce: Average.

Cheese: The cheese curd one (Ham) was awesome with the cheese.

Crust: A lot of burnt pieces, so I was disappointed. Most likely this was due to them being in a rush on openning night.

Toppings: A lot of interesting topping selections, which made their pizzas unique. Some were a little over the top (veggie with no dairy), but it was decent to try and appetizing.

Pizza Chief

Final Comments/Considerations: Personally,I preferred Stone Wall's pizza farm to Geyer's. Less crowd, more pizza, and more traditional toppings. Overall we felt it was a little overrated, but it was a nice property, with a cool garden fir the kids to play in.

Here are our ratings, where 1 = worst and 10 = best.Overall 7.75

Cheese 7.75

Sauce 6.75

Topping 7.00

Crust 7.25

Slices

Venue 9.50

Favorite: Undecided

Attempt #83 - Rusciano’s Authentic Taste of Napli

Venue

The Venue

710 Pacha Parkway Suite 5
North Liberty, Iowa 52317
(319) 665-2761

A popular place in North Liberty, this pizza joint has the locals talking. Napoli style pizza is one with strict requirements. San Marzano tomateos must be used, along with no machine or roller pins for the dough. In addition, the flour has to be the type used in bread making. Ruscainos fits the bill. The strip mall restaurant suits the Iowa City/North Liberty metro area vibe well. Lots of table and booth seating is available, along with an open concept for the kitchen/dining area.

The Pizza

Chicago Style: No

Crust Thickness: Thin

Menu: https://www.facebook.com/Ruscianos/app/1637598386514901/?ref=page_internal

Participants: 8 (plus 4 children)

Pizza Ordered: 9

Sizes Offered/Ordered: Standard personal pan
Crusts Offered/Ordered: Standard Thin Crust

Pieces Cut: Cut it yourself

San Marinara - San Marzano tomato, fresh garlic, oregano, basil, Italian EVOO, $15

Margheritta - San Marzano tomato, fior di latte, basil, italian EVOO, parmigiano D.O.P., $13

Salsiccia - San Marzano tomato, sausage, fior di latte, basil, Italian EVOO, pecorino D.O.P., $14

Menus

2x Salumi - San Marzano tomato, fior di latte, prosciutto di Parma, hot calabrese, genoa salami, basil, italian EVOO, pecorino D.O.P., $15

2x Pesto - Cherry tomato, fior di latte, prosciutto di Parma, parmigiano D.O.P., basil pesto, Italian EVOO, $15

Calabrese - San Marzano tomato, fior di latte, Calabrian chili pepper, hot calabrese salami, basil, Italian EVOO, parmigiano D.O.P., $15

Nutella Pizza

The Verdict

Sauce: Loved the sauce, it was fresh and it hit the money.

Cheese: The cheese was higher quality, however, it did cool quickly, which is a slight downside.

Crust: The crust has a 48 hour preparation, so it has almost a sourdough taste. DELICIOUS! BUT, due to the toppings it gets soggy in the middle if you cut the pizza.

Toppings: The toppings were great-high quality, unique, and appetizing.

Oven

Final Comments/Considerations: We loved the pizza, the pesto having the prosciutto was amazing! The sourdough tasting chewy crust was also awesome! The sogginess of the pies was the only downside. If you don't cut them, this gets around this slight issue. About one pizza per adult served them just right. Check them out if you are in the area

Here are our ratings, where 1 = worst and 10 = best.Overall 8.00

Cheese 9.13

Sauce 8.25

Topping 8.50

Crust 6.25

Venue 8.06

Favorite: Salumi

Calabrese, $15

Margheritta, $13

Pesto, $15

San Marinara, $15

Salsiccia?

Salsiccia, $14

Salumi, $15

Nutella Pizza

Slices