We interrupt today's previously scheduled pizza reviews to first bring you this breaking pizza news!
When it comes to good food, Pies & Pints never disappoints. Those char-grilled hot wings are smokin' good. The jumbo fresh salads are fantastic. Their specialty pies are primo. It's all good, all the time.
But the restaurant's new featured seasonal pizza - an heirloom tomato pie with pesto, fresh mozzarella and Parmesan - is especially one you don't want to miss.
I had popped into the restaurant several days ago to grab the culinary wonder that is their spinach salad, but the ethereal aromas of roasted garlic, fresh herbs, bubbling cheese and fresh-baked dough willed me to flip straight over to the pizza list.
I scanned my usual suspects (Grape & Gorgonzola, Spinach Garlic, Chicken Gouda, Pine & Swine) but then asked if they had any seasonal pizzas on the menu. My server mentioned the aforementioned heirloom tomato situation, so I asked what all was on it.
"Just tomatoes, pesto, cheese and a drizzle of olive oil," she said. "That's really it. It's very simple, but VERY delicious."
She undersold that baby. Simple, yes, but bursting with incredible flavors. The thick slices of refreshingly cool yellow, orange, red and purple mottled tomatoes were a revelation. Pungent pesto enhanced, but didn't mask, that summer bounty. A glaze of olive oil added a silky finish.
It's so good, I've had it twice already this week. You should try it, too, but better hurry. It'll only be on the menu for a limited time.
Now, back to this week's regularly scheduled restaurant reviews.
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Our recent search for a nice non-chain restaurant for dinner during a drive back from Huntington led us to Hurricane's Mountain Pie Company, which I'd heard served top-notch handmade pizzas in the vein of a Pies & Pints or Lola's, my local best-pizza barometers.
Tucked in the corner of a shopping plaza across from the Hurricane City Park reservoir, the restaurant takes pride in its local ownership and a commitment to fresh, quality ingredients.
We walked in and were immediately impressed by the cool decor, lively vibe and packed house. A large outdoor patio practically doubles the restaurant's dining space, so we were lucky to snag a large table outside on a pleasant night.
A few of us ordered selections from an impressive craft beer menu - the only brews they have on tap, which earns bonus points in my book -then looked over a really large menu. There's wine and housemade sangria, too.
Appetizer options included crab, sausage or spinach-artichoke stuffed mushrooms, or Roma tomatoes, grilled wings, crab cakes, bruschetta, various spreads and dips, plus a few soups and salads. Entrées include a couple of pastas and a signature pork loin marinated in citrus and "secret" seasonings, served with old-world pierogies.
I've heard good things about some of those dishes, but it's the pizza most crave here - partly thanks to the hand-stretched tandoori naan crusts they're served on.
Fun choices include the Curry Up and Order Me with curry chicken, goat cheese and figs; Buffalo Mountain with grilled buffalo chicken, gorgonzola and mozzarella topped with celery leaf on white sauce; the Freaky Greek with Mediterranean feta, Roma tomatoes, spinach, roasted red peppers, kalamata olives and red onion drizzled with balsamic glaze on an olive oil base; and the Heart Stopper with five different cheeses.
We ordered several pizzas: the Garden of Eaten (artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes, green peppers, roasted red peppers, Roma tomatoes, spinach, mozzarella and Parmesan cheese on your choice of red, white or pesto sauce); The Shrimp Store Called (shrimp scampi, roasted red peppers, Mediterranean feta, mozzarella and spinach on white sauce); and the Meat and Cheese Only (seasoned pork belly, Italian sausage, marinated steak, pepperoni, mozzarella and asiago cheese on red or white sauce).
They were all delicious - plentiful toppings, interesting flavors, great thin crusts - but all suffered the same flaw. They were drowning under the weight of way too much melted cheese.
I guess there are worse problems a pizza could possess, but there was such a thick blanket of cheese over every pizza that even the restaurant's servers were having a difficult time telling the shrimp pizza from the meat one, which should be pretty obvious at first glance.
Fix that problem, though, and Mountain Pie Company will be a fine addition to my pizza hit list.
IF YOU GO: Mountain Pie Company, 3522A Teays Valley Rd. in Hurricane, is open from 4:30 to 10 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, and 4:30 p.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday. For more information, call 304-397-6249 or visit www.mountainpiecompanywv.com.
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Closer to home, the new Pepperoni Grill in Kanawha City has taken over the space formerly occupied by Scriptures Café and, before that, Creperi Café.
I hadn't heard a thing about the new place until I was driving down MacCorkle one afternoon and noticed the sign. With a quick Facebook search I learned the small restaurant had just been open a few weeks - and was already garnering pretty sweet customer reviews. All four- and five-star ratings on Facebook and Yelp, to be exact.
I popped in the next day - and a couple more times in the weeks to follow - to sample a few of the pizzas, paninis, pastas, sandwiches, wings and salads offered. The verdict? It's not bad. They do some items better than others but for the most part, it's just no-frills decent food that people seem to enjoy. And the service couldn't be more friendly.
Specialty pizza selections include Hawaiian, BBQ, buffalo chicken, margarita, white, supreme and "Lots of Meat." How lotsa? Pepperoni, salami, Italian sausage, ham, bacon and a three-cheese blend.
I sampled the veggie pie, enjoying the blend of tomatoes, mushrooms, green peppers, onions and green/black olives on top. The crust was pretty tasty, although slightly doughy in a couple of thicker parts.
Next trip in, I went for the recommended meatball sub, which also was pretty good. The fresh-made meatball was fresh, but I would've loved more marinara bathing it. The French bun was nice, but I was expecting the onions and green peppers on top to be sautéed or somehow cooked, not chopped and sprinkled on raw. Still, though, not a bad sandwich.
On my third visit, with three boys in tow, we sampled four different items to give the menu a real workout. Ryan's Supreme Pizza (pepperoni, Italian sausage, mushrooms, green peppers, onion and cheese) was probably the best of the bunch, although my Italian Panini (pepperoni, ham, salami, onion, banana peppers and cheese) was pretty solid, too. The garden salad I had with it was fairly basic, but fresh.
Isaac's boneless mild chicken wings were fine, but Adam's Chicken Alfredo was definitely a little bland, begging for more flavor (garlic, salt, white pepper, maybe a sharper cheese like Gruyere) in its too-thin cream sauce.
We had no complaints with dessert, enjoying scoops of pumpkin, raspberry chocolate chip and chocolate Ellen's Homemade Ice Cream. There's also a brownie sundae on the menu, but no adult beverages for those who may be interested.
Crowds have started to pick up a bit and good online reviews keep coming, so Pepperoni Grill seems to have found a good home in Kanawha City. My take is they do pizzas and most sandwiches pretty well, but I was less enamored with the salads and pastas.
And while I don't expect it will become a regular stop in my restaurant repertoire, it's definitely a place I would pop in again for pizza.
IF YOU GO: Pepperoni Grill, 4002 MacCorkle Ave. SE, is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday-Saturday. For more information, call 681-265-9368 or visit www.facebook.com/pepperonigrillwv.
Steven Keith writes a weekly food column for the Charleston Gazette-Mail and an occasional food blog at blogs.wvgazettemail.com/foodguy. He can be reached at 304-380-6096 or by email at wvfoodguy@aol.com. You can also follow him on Facebook as "WV Food Guy" and on Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest as "WVFoodGuy."