Louisville's History of Pizza

I remember a couple different places growing up in Hikes Point. One was located next to the Hikes Point Bowling; presently the parking lot of Kroger. It was a huge place with video games. ( No, not Chuck E Cheese).

Another is Godfather's Pizza nearly across the street ; located next to the new Goodwill Store in Hikes Point. That was some good stuff.

But the best pizza I remember was Rocky's. The original across from JeffBoat. MAN, that was the best pizza ever.

Okay, this is driving me crazy. Long-timers: does anyone besides me remember a "Charlie's Pizza" in the Highlands in the early-to-mid-80's? If I recall correctly, and that's dicey...was it where Jack Fry's kitchen fronts onto Bardstown Road now? Or maybe it was next to the native american shop that used to be where the falafel restaurant is now on the corner of Baxter and Highland? I remember everyone who worked there had a lot of tattoos, and I remember waiting for the bus beside their sidewalk chalkboard sign advertising "Peanut Butter Pizza" (gee...I wonder what state of mind could have inspired that?). Also, it was rumored that you could go there and drink pitchers without a proper ID.

Yep, I remember that place too. It was there for a couple of years and it was where the kitchen for Jack Fry's is now. It was heavily populated with Tewlegans patrons. This was around 1987-89 I think. It was the only place outside of a mall where you could get just a slice, and they had a pretty liberal drinking policy.
It was much more of a, dare I say, "hipster" hangout than pizzeria. It became Julio's pizza for a very brief period after Charlie's and then sat empty for some time before I moved away. When I came back in late 1998 it had become the Jack Fry's kitchen.

I also have fond pizza memories. Although they start in the early 70's with a place called the Back Door that was next to where Keg Liquors is in Clarksville. They had a phone at each table you placed your orders from and I remember it being decorated very in 70's Mod, like something out of "A Clockwork Orange".
Also the Clarksville Pasquale's (where the Friche's is now) and Mario's in Gateway Plaza in Jeffersonville. Both were very dark with checkerboard vinyl tablecloths and very cheesy pies.

I also worked in pizza during my high school years. First at the original Papa John's in Jeffersonville.
Back then besides the pizza, there were also some really good sandwiches and cheese sticks on the menu. However, those went away when he opened up the second and third stores (Clarksville and on Lower Brownsboro Rd.)
John would make the dough and secretly make the pizza sauce seasonings and have them in little plastic bags that we just added to the sauce with some sugar in five gallon buckets and mixed up with this long whisk attachment they had rigged up for an electric drill.
He would also give us money and send us to the Gateway grocery to buy the cheapest margarine or oleo they would have by the case. We would then melt that down with garlic salt for the butter dipping sauce. We would hand fill hundreds of 2 oz. souffle cups of this stuff.

I also worked for Noble Romans. I really liked the pizza at this place. I worked at both the location in Clarksville (where Fazoli's is now) and the one in New Albany. The one in Clarksville had a rotating six deck oven that you really had to know how to work when it was busy. You quickly learned how to get a 21' pizza off the peel "on the fly" without stopping the decks, because you might wind up burning something on a deck on the far side side of the oven if you stopped them from turning to put in a pizza.
It's apparent to me that NABC (Sportstime) still basically uses the methods and recipes from when the location was a Noble Romans, and that's not a bad thing! The Upside Down pizza was then called Sicilian, the Refrigerator was called the Monster. The Roundhouse was Pizza Brio and the Hand-tossed is still the Hand-tossed. Kids used to love watching us throw pies through the glass and we were encouraged to be entertaining

I remember a couple different places growing up in Hikes Point. One was located next to the Hikes Point Bowling; presently the parking lot of Kroger. It was a huge place with video games. ( No, not Chuck E Cheese).

Dont know if it was the same thing, but in Okolona and in Highview, at least two Pizza Inns turned into PizzArcade (~1980). I remember the pizza being nothing special.

There was Mario's Pizza in St. Mathews about where the Ratterman' parking lot expanded to. This was in the sixties and seventies. My first job was at the original Bearno's on Taylorsville Rd, across from Bowman Field. The original was located at the end of a strip of stores and had a seating capacity of only 32. The current Bearno's next to it was a Radio Shack.

[Robin Garr]

My first job was at the original Bearno's on Taylorsville Rd, across from Bowman Field. The original was located at the end of a strip of stores and had a seating capacity of only 32. The current Bearno's next to it was a Radio Shack.

I remember that! Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Kevin.

Ooh, I definitely remember going to hard-core shows at Charlies Pizza. And Yes, indeed they did serve beer to the under-aged. Oh, and the Peanut-butter Pizza was wicked!

Okay, this is driving me crazy. Long-timers: does anyone besides me remember a "Charlie's Pizza" in the Highlands in the early-to-mid-80's? =Also, it was rumored that you could go there and drink pitchers without a proper ID.

Growing up in the 80's, I was a fan of Mr. Gatti's. I also like Showbiz Pizza or Chuck E. Cheeses as a kid. In the late 90's, I liked the Granville for a late night greasy pizza. Today, I would say Wick's is my favorite Louisville pizza place.

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the first pizza place I remember going out to eat at was called Angelo's and I want to say it was on Berry Blvd or thereabouts. My Mom, being partially descended from Sicilians, didn't care much for it. But Dad loved it, so she bit the bullet. Looking back, it probably wasn't 'good' pizza by any stretch of the epicurean mind, but I was so young (6-10 years old or so) and it was always such a happy family time, that I cannot drum up a single negative experience memory. And whether it was 'good' pizza or not, I wouldn't have it any other way.
The additions of the sit-down arcade games and the SOOPER-strettchy pizza cheese only add luster to the gold frames around the memories.

Growing up in the 80's, I was a fan of Mr. Gatti's. I also like Showbiz Pizza or Chuck E. Cheeses as a kid. In the late 90's, I liked the Granville for a late night greasy pizza. Today, I would say Wick's is my favorite Louisville pizza place.

Oh my god... I remember Showbiz Pizza.