🧱BRICK OVEN PIZZA ALERT🧱 Formerly the location of Bimonte’s Pizza Castle, Eli’s Restaurant Group bought this spot in 2005 & began serving thin crust brick oven imitation New Haven style pizza. Cooked in a brick oven that reaches temperatures over 700°, this is pretty close to the real coal-fired style; but there are obvious telltale signs that it’s not, such as the shockingly floppy dough. Soft & flimsy in the body of the pie, the dough is tasty but has no backbone or spine. Despite the absence of firmness & crisp, the undercarriage possesses moderate char with semolina seeds that do not provide much help from preventing a limp texture, teetering on soggy. Easily the best attribute of the pie is the thin, crispy & crunchy beautifully blackened crust, with a well done finish that straddles the line of burnt. The contrast between the charred texture of the crust & softness of the center of the pie is stark. The cheese is a very tasty & creamy shredded mozzarella blend with a melty consistency as well as delectable New Haven pizza cheese flavor. Despite yielding a fair amount of grease, the mozz is smokey & flavorful. A top notch quality blend, the cheese is able to fend off the infiltration of excess oil, rendering only a mildy salty taste. Surprisingly heartier than I expected, the sauce is a complex combination of sweet, tangy & tart, sensationally savory & not impacted by the grease slick whatsoever. Uniquely flavorful, the sauce is delicious, punching through the taste of the cheese & well-balanced with the dough. The crux of the problem with this pie is the weak textural integrity in the center of the pizza; too soft & flimsy to support the cheese & sauce, they need to firm up the body of the dough. A crispier & more stable base along with a controlled grease flow would make this a travel-worthy pie that could easily crack the high 8s. As it stands, this is very solid brick oven imitation New Haven pizza, a fine option if you’re not interested in the long lines at the Big 3 in the “Pizza Capitol.”
