Searching for Summit's Best Slice

It was a challenge of mammoth proportions: finding the best slice of delivery pizza among Summit’s seven pizzerias. A panel of four Patch taste-tasters with extremely long pizza-eating resumes congregated at a secure location in town, and at 5:05 pm on a Friday night, it was anyone’s guess as to which establishment would (A) deliver on time and (B) have the best-tasting slice.

After a rash of back-to-back phone calls, the competition was quickly narrowed down to just four contenders: Doria Pizzeria, Joe’s Pizzeria & Vittoria Ristorante, Village Pizza & Pasta, and Summit Brick Oven.

Randazzo Pizza & Restaurant utilizes a delivery service, which knocked it out of the running for now. Two calls to Buena Vista Pizzeria resulted in a confusing conversation with a gentleman who interestingly didn’t speak English. And, last but not least, Village Trattoria did not deliver. These restaurants would have to be included in a future Patch round-up.

All but Doria beat their estimated delivery times, and all were fairly comparable in price for a large cheese pie ($14.30 for Village, $14.95 for Summit Brick, $15.88 for Joe’s, and just over $16 for Doria). Bonus points were awarded to Village Pizza for providing a second pie in five minutes flat when the panel mistakenly called to complain that our original order had not been delivered. Not only did Joe’s send over a second pizza pronto, but they were gracious and quick to apologize—even though they actually had not made an error at all. Points were deducted from Doria which not only delivered the pizza late by a full 20 minutes, but served up a plate of attitude when the panel called to inquire about our order.

With four (five, if you count Joe’s second pie) cheese pizzas before us, the panel dug in, comparing crust consistency, cheese factor, sauce flavor, greasiness, and tip droopage. It was an exciting moment of truth… which resulted in a disappointing, surprise ending that none of us had ever expected.

Despite Summit’s many pizzeria choices, Patch found the four we tested to be varying degrees of average. Not one of the pies stood out as a hands-down front-runner, although if someone put a gun to our heads and forced us to pick a winner, we’d go with Summit Brick Oven which rated consistently, regardless of the temperature of the pie (a definite plus for cold pizza, morning-after junkies). On the flip side, none was determined truly awful. They were all fine, filling, get-you-through-the-night slices. To put it in another context, Bobby Flay will most likely not visit these four establishments any time soon for a Throwdown. But, hungry Summit residents can surely turn to any of the four pizzerias for a quick slice without breaking the bank or their palates. There are just some days when nothing beats a slice of pizza, and this collective bunch will no doubt satisfy that craving.

Here’s how the competition stacked up:

Summit Brick Oven

Crust Consistency: The bottom wasn’t exactly crisp, even though the top had some burnt parts

Cheese Factor: Adequate

Sauce Flavor: Most flavorful of the bunch, heavy on the garlic and salt

Greasiness: Pretty greasy

Tip Droopage: Slight

Doria Pizzeria

Crust Consistency: Crisp-crunches when you separate the slices, but gets tougher to bite through as it cools down

Cheese Factor: Rubbery, especially as the slice cooled down

Sauce Flavor: Flecked with basil and oregano, but too thin/little covering

Greasiness: Slight

Tip Droopage: Slight

Joe’s Pizzeria & Vittoria Ristorante

Crust Consistency: Chewy

Cheese Factor: Rubbery, one panelist questioned whether it was actually mozzerella

Sauce Flavor: Adequate, although the spicing was uneven among the slices

Greasiness: Major

Tip Droopage: Major

Village Pizza

Crust Consistency: Chewy

Cheese Factor: Adequate

Sauce Flavor: On the sweet side, which one panelist compared to Spaghetti-o’s

Greasiness: Very

Tip Droopage: Major