Pizzology Pizzeria & Pub
13190 Hazel Dell Parkway
Carmel, IN 46033
For you out of town readers, Pizzology is Neal Brown’s heavily anticipated pizzeria. Neal’s last restaurant, L’explorateur was the food equivalent to the scene in Back to the Future where Marty plays Johnny B Goode. Neal of course playing the part of Marty McFly and Indianapolis diners playing the part of teenagers at the Enchantment Under The Sea Dance. Okay, I know I am generalizing, but you get the drift, right?
I can ramble for a while, but understand that a crazy talented individual has a new home. Let’s skip to the food. Warning…pics are lame; I needed more light! Also, if you are looking for a Pizzology menu, hours, phone number or website online…well, I can’t find them either.
Salad heavy starters will begin the menu. I was with family so I had the chance to try a little of this and that.
Starters:
Daily Zuppa $3. White Bean Stew.
It was described as vegetarian friendly and it tasted like it. Flavors were clean and well balanced. The white beans, celery and carrots fit the season well and I enjoyed it.
Chop Salad $4 - Romaine, Prosciutto, Gorgonzola, Tomato, Citronette.
Again, very clean though it was dressed a little light and I missed the acidity. I didn’t dislike this salad, but would order the Grilled Romaine before I revisited the Chop Salad.
Chop... with about 1/2 of it finished!
Tony’s Fritters $8 - Two Zucchini Fritters with Parmesan Reggiano and Truffle Oil.
The clear winner out of all the starters. Crab cake sized fritters that left me wanting more. I specifically enjoyed the contrast in textures, between the soft and hard cheeses and the meaty zucchini. It was perfect in a lot of ways and so outside of what I would expect to eat before a pizza…but it just worked.
Pizza:
Simple formula: $13 for 13″ pizza. Eight Pizza Rossa and five Pizza Bianca to choose from. I love a white pizza, but we opted for red sauce. You could build your own as well.
Homemade Sausage - Fennel, Onion, Fennel Sausage, Roasted Sweet Pepper
Sausage is my favorite pizza topping and this didn’t disappoint. They have a good command over red sauce, no doubt about it. The pizza was served with shaved fennel in the middle and it made a pretty striking presentation (for pizza that is).
My only recommendation would be to have bigger pieces of sausage. There was good coverage on the pizza, but it was difficult to isolate the taste of the sausage. I would like to try a spicy option with this as well. Overall, this pizza was top shelf.
Pepperoni – Pepperoni, Mozzarella
Executing and perfecting basics is so important in my book. Continued emphasis on quality and freshness. The sauce was a little sweet, but my wife loved this pizza. Pepperoni pizza can quickly become a salty/greasy mess, but that was not the case here.
Pasta:
Pappardelle & Bolognese $15.00 (there is a $7.00 portion as well)
Wow!! Truly one of the best pastas that I have had at a restaurant. So simple, yet so good. It was good enough to call the joint Pastaology. Instead of a ground beef, think pulled pork-esque meat sauce. My favorite item of the meal. It was scarfed down before we thought about taking a pic!
Would I Buy It Again? Yes, easily and frequently. Strong emphasis on quality, seasonal, local ingredients and even beer selections leaned towards local brews. There is a lot to be said with that sentence alone.
I thought the prices were in line with what I received…a lot more value than I would’ve guessed going into a “gourmet” pizza place. The interior was comfortable and I thought the renovation from prior Goodfellas was very tasteful and it made a lot of sense to open the room.
Long story short, the pizza met expectations and they are as good as the hype. The Zucchini Fritter reminded me that there are more choices than bread sticks and the pasta came out of nowhere to steal the show.
Done rambling…I have leftovers in the fridge to tend to.
-wibia
Tags: Food, fritters, Neal Brown, Pasta, Pizza, Pizzology, salad, stew, truffle oil
And like you said, if the lights are on, it should be ready to go. Glad it was good even on opening night.
Have been eagerly anticipating this opening. Can’t wait to try the cheese pizza, my all-time favorite food. Do you remember if they had vegetarian salads?
I can’t wait. I really wanted to go last night, but I got back too late.
Tonight I’m heading to Chef JJ’s and this weekend I plan to check out the new Dim Sum place – When will I fit in Pizzology. I think I just need to buy bigger pants.
@ Phil:I wish that I could go tonight, but I can’t. The Dim Sum place is on my radar as well…if you go to Dim Sum, let me know.
Reviewing on opening night is an interesting argument, I see both sides. I can’t say I agree with the idea of going 2+ times to review as well. I had a 4 course meal not long ago and I didn’t like any of the courses, do I need to go back? Service tends to be variable and food tends to be more consistent. We rarely mention service on this blog so we cut off the some of the most inconsistent parts of the biz.
Btw, thanks for stopping by Jolene.
Wow, for a pizza joint to call itself “Pizzology”, they’d better be pretty damned good. And it sounds like they live up to the name. I’m really interested in making the 1 hour trip to check this place out. Good review!
Glad to see a good local pizza place has opened up there, and that it’s good. I do have a problem with the name in that I can’t seem to get Too Short’s “Pimpology” out of my head when I see “Pizzology”. I think this was likely intentional on the part of Neal Brown.
Enjoyed reading your take on Pizz.
Was there last night and loved it and will definitely go back. I want to try the pasta dishes and the risotto.
FYI- Pizzology’s web site:
http://www.pizzologyindy.com
Ok, I decided to try this place today and here are my thoughts:
Pros:
Very fresh ingredients
AWESOME cheese
Good sauce
Cons:
Only one size pizza
Almost as much crust as toppings; not enough toppings and cheese
$13 for a pizza I can easily down by myself
Crust was inconsistant, it was really good on the the Lombardy, but almost cardboard on the pepperoni.
Sorry to this place, but they’ll be gone within a year or two. Definetely not a family restaurant and that’s what all developments around hazel dell are. Can’t imagine ever going there to drink either. I think Jet’s Pizza over on 146th is going to do great (was awesome in Michigan)
2 questions:
1. Why don’t you think that it is a family place?
2. Did you try the pasta, I think that it is the wild card.
I think that it will be fine. Jets is so hyped up…I have a another friend from Michigan that loves it. Looking forward to trying it.
It’s just not a pizza place I would take my family to. Just too expensive and they only offer one small size pizza.
What I think would make this place much better is if they offered standard small, medium, large, and XL pizza sizes, then lower the price a tad. They nailed the cheese, sauce, and toppings, but it was terrible in quantity on the pizza. I see so much potential =’[
Was in town visiting in laws for the holidays and I thought I would give this a shot. I had been to the chef’s other venture and enjoyed it, so I thought “why not!”.
Unfortunately I can’t say I would return. First, a $13 personal pizza needs to offer a lot more both in the way of flavor and substance. I’m not looking for monster portions, but I was just very “underwhelmed” by both the flavors as well as the size.
It’s also not very family friendly, I concur. First…they ran out of coke. How do you run out of coke? Second…the wait was extreme. It took us over an hour to get our pizzas. Hungry 7 year olds aren’t known for their patience.
I could see this place succeeding in an area of Boston (my town) like Beacon Hill . A metro, forward thinking trendy/hipster area with a good amount of disposable income & DINK (dual income no kids) couples. However, it just didn’t feel right for this area of Carmel. Too expensive for what is offered, too much competition that’s a better value and more family focused.
Good try though.
@ james:
I get it and part of me agrees, part of me doesn’t. I maybe generalizing, only because my kiddo is 5 months…but do you think that the quality would be lost on an 5 year old? I tend to think that it would.
What I liked about Pizzology is that there are few places like it. If I want to go somewhere with a nice dinning room, no plastic plates, serves local ingredients and local beers…then I have few choices. If I am looking for value pizza, I have a lot of options.
At the end of the day, love it/hate it, I am just glad that we now have an option…and a pretty good one.
@eric…thanks for your comments. See above 5 month old I was able to toss him on a chair and he slept through it all!