The Iowan Pizza Chronicles: Attempt #90

Venue Outside

The Venue
22 S Clinton St,
Iowa City, IA 52240
(319) 351-9259

The Airliner opened in 1944 and has remained a Iowa City landmark for decades. Famous for pizza and its sports bar atmosphere closely tied with aviation with world known Rockwell Collins, an aviation giant headquartered 22 miles north, it’s a bit flattering working in that field. The bar has several tables, booths, and has two floors. Most dining is done downstairs. They do not accept reservations, so if you have a large party, you may have to wait. They are usually busy. Weekday or weekend, there is usually a crowd. Game days are especially packed, so try to avoid them unless you don’t mind being packed in the bar.

Venue Inside

The Pizza

Chicago Style: Yes

Crust Thickness: Average

Menu: http://theairlinerbar.com/

Participants: 6 (plus 2 children)

Pizza Ordered: 5

Sizes Offered/Ordered: 10” Small (all five ordered were small) and 16" Large

Crusts Offered/Ordered: Chicago Deep Dish, Airliner Regular, New York Thin, Glutten-free

Pieces Cut: Triangular

Airliner Taco Pizza - Your choice of crust covered with red sauce or refried beans followed by seasoned beef, black olives and onions. Then, special cheese blend, lettuce, tomato, and corn chips. Served with a side of sour cream and salsa. Sub chicken for $1.00 (10” Small Average Crust, $15.99).

Menu

Greek Special Pizza - Your choice of crust covered with an olive oil, garlic and herb sauce. Then topped with spinach, black olives, feta cheese, tomatoes and lightly covered with our special blend of cheeses (10” Small, New York Thin Crust, $15.99).

Philly Cheese Steak - Alfredo sauce, sliced beef, green peppers, sliced onions and cheese blend (10” Small, Chicago Deep Dish Crust, $15.99).

Supreme - Pepperoni, sausage, Canadian bacon, black olives, onions, mushrooms and green peppers, then smothered in our own cheese blend (10” Small, Chicago Deep Dish Crust, $15.99).

Alfredo Chicken Pizza - Alfredo base topped with grilled chicken, scallions, tomato and artichoke hearts (10” Small, Chicago Deep Dish Crust, $15.99).

The Verdict

Sauce: The sauce was noticeably sweat.

Cheese: Too much cheese on the Greek, it lacked sauce!

Crust: The deep dish pizza’s crust made a tasty breadstick after eating the pizza, which was good. I did enjoy the crust. Some pizzas were a bit wet in the center of the pizza pie though.

Toppings: The staff put the incorrect topping on our Philly Cheesesteak, they used chicken instead of beef! An unpleasant surprise to some of us, but it worked out since we didn’t mind too much.

Final Comments/Considerations: The pizza was good, nothing spectacular, but good. Better than Mesa’s or Pizza on Dubuque by far. If I were to attend again, I would try it on a Sunday afternoon when there is no football game playing, it would be more enjoyable for a group/family. We went when there was a football game being played from out of town, which caused the seating to be tight.

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

Overall 8.17

Cheese 8.92

Sauce 8.83

Topping 8.67

Crust 8.17

Venue 5.50

Favorite: THREE WAY TIE. Alfredo Chicken/Philly Cheesesteak (Chicken Screwup)/ Airliner Taco Pizza