As promised, the blog entry about Myles Pizza of Bowling Green, Ohio. But first, let me tell you a little bit of how I view pizza in general, so that you’ll better understand my review.
I subscribe to the over arching theory of pizza that people compare all pizza to the best, or most frequently eaten, pizza of their youth. For me, that was Margherita’s Pizza on Main Street in Newark, Delaware. The pizza at Margherita’s is a perfect example of thin crust, foldable, New York Style pizza (though they do have some thick crust Sicilian pizza as well). My father was a professor at the University of Delaware for 33 years. When I would go with him to the office or class, we would inevitably wind up there for lunch, and he often brought it home for dinner.
It is to this pizza that I used to compare all pizza. I was frequently disappointed by a chain pizza or when traveling. Sometimes this happened because the pizza was just plain crappy: bad sauce, tasteless cheese, soggy crust, minimal toppings, etc. But sometimes it was because the style of the pizza was just different from what I’d grown up with.
When I went to college in California, I was broken of this habit by simply allowing a new way to frame the concept of pizza into my mind. The pizza of my youth was the best example of thin crust, New York Style pizza (even better than I’ve had in New York recently). But there are other styles of pizza in the world, and I found great examples of those over the course of my life. So, in California, I learned to like California style pizza: strange toppings, a sweeter, soft crust, tomato-y sauce (as opposed to a sauce with a strong spice or garlicky note to it).
This new theory was tested when I moved to Chicago, and experienced Chicago Style Thin Crust pizza (different from the deep dish, sauce on top, eat with a fork and knife kind of Chicago Style pizza). This pizza has a thin, crisp crust, the cheese is usually a mixture of cheeses and placed above the toppings, and the sauce is more seasoned than either California or New York Style. It’s also often cut in squares, despite being round in shape. This produces my favorite little bites of Chicago Style Thin crust: the four little triangles on the outer edge.
Okay, that out of the way, on to Myles Pizza Pub of Bowling Green, Ohio. One more thing, though, on pizza in general: if you want to find good pizza, go to a college town. Bowling Green is home of Bowling Green State University, so of course, I expected to find good pizza there. But Myles Pizza far exceeded my expectations.
Our friend who lives in BG and was helping us with the slide and cabinet issues (See posts: The Slide, Slide 1, Lost Ramblers 3, We Have a Winner! and Another Win for the Humans) recommended that after we complete all our projects, we get this pizza as a reward. I think pizza makes a fine reward for anything, so we ordered and had it delivered to us at the Woods County Fairgrounds.
He warned us that it was “Toledo Style” pizza. Now, I’d never heard of Toledo Style pizza, so I was immediately curious. When the pizza arrived with our breadstick sampler (Garlic, Cheese Stuffed, and Pepperoni Stuff Breadsticks) I went out to pick it up and when the delivery guy handed it to me I nearly dropped it. It was so heavy!
When we got the food inside, Richard and I were astonished. Not only was there mountains of well browned mozzarella cheese, but loads and loads of toppings. We chose pepperoni, sausage, mushroom, and onion. This is a knife and fork pizza like Chicago Style, but unlike Chicago Style Deep Dish, the cheese was on top, not sauce. Also, it wasn’t a pizza cooked in a dish. The crust was crisp and browned like a pizza cooked on the floor of a pizza oven should be. But (bonus!) there was so much cheese that some of it had oozed over the side during cooking and gotten that tasty caramelization that happens to deep-dish pizza. The sauce was spicy with loads of garlic and so good I could eat it with a spoon.
In summary, Myles Pizza Pub serves a Toledo Style pizza that is a combination of many of the great parts of Chicago Style deep dish: lots of toppings, cheese and sauce and a little caramelization on the cheese. Yet it still has some of the characteristics of a hand tossed pizza with a crisp, chewy crust with the body to stand up to all those toppings.
If you ever find yourself in Bowling Green, OH, I say go for Myles Pizza for your night out eating pleasure. It’s well worth it, especially since one slice will fill you up, giving you left overs for lunch (or breakfast) for several days. Enjoy!
