Read a few reviews and decided to try this place. I gotta say that I'm pretty hard on restaurants and pizza in particular. That said, I begrudgingly have to tip my hat to this place. It's the quintessential "don't judge a book by its cover" kind of place. The exterior and parking lot look downright ghetto, but the second you open the front door, you realize that the owners spent their renovation money making this a place you enjoy being in. There's no patio, which is a bit of a bummer, but since it's right ON Federal Blvd, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. I like the way they built it out. Stained concrete bar looks upscale without trying too hard. Just enough TV's so that you don't have to turn your head to watch a game if you are sitting at the bar. The wait staff and bartenders are young, energetic and engaging and they don't try too hard to be friendly. Whomever hired the staff knows what they are doing. I didn't make it for happy hour, but I will try to do so next time in. It's a good deal at 2 for 1 everything plus 50% off appetizers until 7pm.
So I sat down at a brand new booth and looked at the menu. I like that they don't try to do too much. I hate when pizza restaurants do pizza well then decide they want to offer a million other things as well and fail to deliver anything but mediocrity. This place has a few appetizers and salads and although I didn't try them all, it looks like they keep it simple enough to do them well. The specialty pizzas are mostly named after local streets. I asked the server what the most popular pizza was and she said, "the Tejon". It's a non-traditional pizza made with grilled chicken, aged white cheddar (instead of mozzarella), fresh chopped cilantro, avocado slices and creme fraiche served on hand-tossed crust and green chili-based sauce. I was game and tried one. Oh. My. God. I tried this little creative, out-of-the-box gem and had to meet the chef. Alberto is a tall, thin, tattooed gentleman of Peurto Rican descent. He said he cut his teeth in the pizza industry back in Philadelphia working for a shop that made over 80,000 pizzas per year. One thing is for sure--this man knows how to put a pizza together. Some of his other ideas: granny smith apples, mozzarella, bleu and brie cheeses on the Lowell. a mild white garlic sauce, artichoke hearts, marinated chicken or shrimp (or half and half if you ask nicely), calamata olives, prosciutto, mozzarella and fresh grated Parmesan cheese on his personal favorite called the Highland. He talks about his pizza like a grandpa brags about his grandkids. It was quite a breath of fresh air meeting somebody like him. keep in mind that I'm a jerk and am very hard on restaurants so I must mention the one thing that irritated me a little bit--the music was turned up a little too loud for my liking. That's it--loud music. Every now and then a restaurant comes along that seems to have a great formula and I gotta say, it looks like Pizza Public is one of them. I came in a skeptic, but left a fan.
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