Enrico's Pizza (5788 Frantz Road, Dublin, OH)

Hype: We needed some redemption pie. Last week we got to judge a home made pizza contest by CMH Gormand. It was fun and everyone was really cool but most of the pizzas they made sucked. We ate 12 slices and 3 or 4 were good. It hurt the next day. This time were would visit Enrico's--the famous NW Columbus pizza stronghold.

Scene: We counted at least three generations working. Two old ladies, a middle aged lady, an old dude, a bunch of middle aged dudes, and some kids. This is certainly a family joint. There was even a family or two getting some pizza while we were there. We're all about that kind of stuff.
The Pie:
Crust- FANTASTIC. Crusty-crunchy-toasty on the bottom. Filled with integrity, like the Enrico family, yet a little doughy as it approached the sauce. A little thicker than other awesome NW Columbus pizza crusts. This was superb.
Sauce- A let down. Maybe just tomato sauce from the can with no spices, seriously.
Cheese- Very plentiful and good. Traditional pizza cheese just right.
Peps- Medium/thick cut, spicy and salty. Cupped in the heat of the oven which caused mild toasting at the rims. I liked it.

Overall: This pie was very good. A slightly bigger both in width and depth than most NW Columbus pizzas but it still fits the mold quite well. I see why people from Dublin and Hilliard like it so much. 15 inch larges. 4/5 pies.

Fear and Loathing in Old Town East: Yellow Brick Pizza, 892 Oak St, Columbus, OH

Hype: Everybody's talking about this place. We think it's just because there's nothing else going on in Old Town East. Lots of cool people with nowhere to hang out. Let's see if it lives up to the legend.

Scene: Kitschy 8x10s of Charles Bronson, Charles Barkley, and a Young Charlie Sheen line the walls with at least two Beatles posters and an ad for the Ohio Roller Girls. I guess the management admires Liz Lessner's ability to make CCAD grads feel right at home while they wait tables. It looked like the apartment of three 22 year old girls who had way too much money to spend on e-bay.

Right when we walked in we noticed that they are selling slices for $3.50 each. With beer at $4.50 a draft and hot chicks with straight-out-of-the-brewery-district dudes at every table we didn't feel welcomed. Everything seemed so forced. First an overpriced and ironic hot-dog shop and now they try to take away pizza?
The Pie:
Crust- The only truly weak link in the pie. It was pretty thin for a hand tossed pie, but lacked the crisp needed to either stand up to the toppings, or the texture for a really great NYC fold-up. We could tell they had something in mind with it, but it just didn't work.
Sauce- Fresh and zesty. Tart and tomato-y. Good.
Cheese- Abundant and real. I think this was the highlight of the pizza.
Peps- Pretty good. Some folded, most not. Good spice, but not overbearing.
Overall: The pie was decent, but the environment was custom made for young junior executives to feel perfectly safe, yet artsy in their new cool neighborhood. To make matters worse, we just kept thinking about how we cold be at Hounddog's drinking a pitcher of Bud and eating better pizza for only 10 bucks. Sure we would have to listen to Fugazi again, but the music here wasn't much better. Hounddogs has half the irony for a quarter of the price. Throw in a few pool tables and a dart board and it seems like a no-brainer. If we lived in this hood we'd be creaming our skinny jeans over this place because Old Town East sucks, but we don't so I have no intentions of ever returning to this place again. Josie's is just as far, and Yellow Brick Pizza is no Josie's. 3/5. Should have listened to my old man...

Josie's Pizza (952 w broad st, Columbus, (614) 224-9637)

Hype: We've been talkin bout visiting this joint for like two years I guess. It just seems so far away and we didn't know if would be good. People said it was, but people say all kinds of things you know.

Scene: It's across the streetish from the Florintine Restaurant. They only have one pizza on the menu. The neighborhood is decently run down. Inside you will find some booths and a lunch counter in the back. Some ladies working looked related.

The Pie:
Crust- Perfect. Thin, buttery, crispy from edge to center. Held up lots of cheese and absorbed abundant sauce effortlessly.
Sauce- Sweet. The ladies were not shy in applying it, but I've had much better.
Cheese- As you can see from the photo they hooked it up. It was nicely brown and flavorful. One problem: they put it over the peps.
Hidden Peps!- They were under the cheese, so naturally, they were not toasty, which made the saltiness less acute than on a NW Columbus pie. They did mix well with the sweet sauce though.

Overall: Nice pie. It was a welcome departure from the north end while still having a thin crust. It's worth a visit. 4 of 5 pies.

Jimmy's Pizza (1484 Oakland Park Avenue, 263-2678‎)

Hype: Dave's been hearing all kinds of stuff about this place for a while so we decided to try it out. We also wanted to open Season II with a real winner. Expectations were very high and we were not let down.
Scene: We walked up to the place in a strip mall to see some dude working on a motorcycle in front of the laundry-mat next door. Only one Lady was running the show. Right when we walked in she layed down a proposition:
Lady: "Are you the guys that ordered the two large pepperonis?"
Us: "Ugh, yeah."
Lady: "Hey I've got this dumb-ass delivery guy that won't be back for like an hour and I need these pizzas delivered down to my girl on Duncan fast. If you guy's will take 'em down there I'll give you yours for free. Deal?"
Us: "OK"
...five minutes later... Delivery guy walks in. He's way to old to be delivering pizzas, and I don't mean 25. More like 70. Velcro shoes. Shitty van. Old. Our pizza delivery days were already over.
...Instead the lady offers us half price for the pizzas, $10, AND gives us two stray pizzas to squelch our appetites until ours are done. Yes, that's four (4) pizzas for the price of one. This place rules: certainly the strangest 45 minutes I've ever spent picking up a pizza. Too much to tell here, ask Fern.

The Pie:
Crust- perfect. Thin, but not saltine. Typical of North--NW Columbus pies. Uniformly browned to a crispy-flaky bottom and a more moist top, next to the awesome sauce.
Sauce- made by famous Carfagna's gourmet shop. Spicy, sweet, perfectly applied, and not overly done. It does not distract from the rest of the pie. I like it.
Cheese- Fairly typical pizza cheese. This was not overwhelming like the bottom two ingredients. Not to say it's bad or anything though. Moderate application.
Peps- Medium thick cut, salty, not too greasy, cupped. The edges were browned and bottoms still a little chewy.
Overall: As strange as the pickup was the pie was nearly perfect. All of the ingredients worked well together to make a fancy pie, without any pretense. Grade A slices for the masses. 5/5 pies!!!!
***Party Boyz: They have a nice selection of domestic brews at state minimum prices. 24oz. Big Cans for 1/99. Deal