Boiler Room

Tucked away in the cellar at Congress Hall in Cape May, NJ is this wood-fired brick oven pizzeria/bar/night club that opens daily at 5pm. They specialize in slightly larger than personal sized artisan Neapolitan pizza. I don’t believe they use sourdough but the flavor of the dough is very similar to a San Francisco sourdough bread bowl used to serve clam chowder. Not crispy or crunchy, mostly soft & chewy, the dough has a somewhat smokey flavor despite minimal char & a rather soft & doughy crust. The mozzarella cheese blend is sharp & pungent, almost sour-tasting, possibly affected by the flavor of the dough. Half of the pie is soaked in orange-tinged grease while the other half looks like bright white fresh mozz. The creamy consistency of the cheese is partly interrupted by the intrusive excess oil, yielding a salty taste. Equally inept is the house-made plum tomato sauce which is watery, oily, salty & lacking sweetness. Overpowered by the taste of the dough & some saltiness from the grease, the sauce gets lost, taking a backseat to the dough & even the cheese. Some shredded & wilted basil is carelessly strewn atop the pie in a centralized pile, in a failed attempt to add flavor, class & color. What I expected to be some of the best pizza in Cape May, fell right in line with the other subpar pies in the area. This is a fairly cool spot for a drink but not for travel-worthy pizza.