Bites Nearby: Little Ryan's Pizza Delivers some of Summer's Best

Good food and fun times — it's what summer is all about. On a sunny afternoon, what's better than grabbing a pizza or two and heading down to the park for an impromptu picnic? , within walking distance of the newly-remodeled will allow you to have that picnic with the toppings to suit the entire family and not break the bank in doing so.

Little Ryan's has been around for about 15 years. The husband-and-wife team running the show is incredibly helpful and genuinely nice. Being able to engage with the owners and have them be so intimately involved with the business is always refreshing. This is, of course, the fundamental difference between chain and independent pizza places. 

Another difference is fresh ingredients. Even without me asking, it was mentioned by the owners that all ingredients are fresh and most are chopped by hand. It might easier to use canned mushrooms, but the flavor and texture of fresh ones far surpass their canned brethren. 

The pizza is very good. The crust is sturdy and chewy, topped with fresh, house-seasoned sauce. Cheese is plentiful and of high quality. As mentioned above, the toppings are all fresh. For a two-topping pizza, the makers had no issue halving two different toppings, so the pizza had pepperoni on the entire pie along with one half topped with mushrooms and the other half topped with ham.

Little Ryan's provides not only quality, but also value. For about $20, you get a large pizza with two toppings, cheese bread, large garden salad and a 2-liter bottle of pop. It was enough to feed my family (myself, wife and two small children) for two meals.

The garden salad is fresh, verdant and full of vegetables. Aside from lettuce, there's tomato, red onion, cucumbers and black olives. The dressing may not be homemade, but given the freshness of the salad, we can give them a pass on that. A large garden salad is easily enough for four or more people.

For the sake of thoroughness, I added a steak and cheese sandwich — an 8-inch sandwich will run you about $5. Little Ryan's steak and cheese sandwich is a hearty meal in a bun: lots of shaved beef, cheese, mushrooms, onions, lettuce, tomato and dressing, served hot. I added pickled jalapenos for an added kick.

At 8 inches, this might not be enough to split, but add a small salad, and you definitely have a meal for two. The flavors are spot on, too. The steak is cooked well and is complemented by the textural contrast of the cheese and veggies.