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Ray G.

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Oak Street Pizza, Watery Veggie?

by Ray G. » Sat Mar 22, 2008 8:55 pm

I finally decided to give them a try and I ordered the Mediterranean for delivery. Since it has oven roasted tomatoes as one of the ingredients, I asked specifically, like many all-veggie pies turn out (especially with tomatoes), if this is a watery pizza. The order taker said that it wasn't at all. I also ordered it "well done". The pizza arrived and lo and behold, it was quite watery and the toppings easily slid off of the very floppy crust. FYI, I live near Tyler Park so I am within 7 or 8 minutes of the store and it arrived hot in just under 30 minutes from the call.

I was a little disappointed but, I could tell that there were very good things happening with the flavors. Is this normal for an all veggie pizza? I will certainly try them again but maybe order a pie with just pepperoni or anchovies.

Thoughts?
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Leah S

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Re: Oak Street Pizza, Watery Veggie?

by Leah S » Sat Mar 22, 2008 9:53 pm

The Mediterrian is one of my favorites. I've never experienced the watery veggies, but I do pick up at their store, so I get mine hot from the oven and am home in 5 minutes.
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Matthew Landan

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Re: Oak Street Pizza, Watery Veggie?

by Matthew Landan » Mon Mar 24, 2008 9:52 am

watery pizza?
that's a new one for me.
I love Oak St. Pizza, finally thin crust that isn't greasy.
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Ron Johnson

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Re: Oak Street Pizza, Watery Veggie?

by Ron Johnson » Mon Mar 24, 2008 9:55 am

watery pizza is known and accepted risk of ordering a pizza with a lot of veggies on it as most vegetables contain a lot of water that is released in the heat of the oven.

This is usually not a problem if the pizza oven is hot enough to evaporate the water quickly, or the pizza is not too overloaded with veggies. another solution is to roast the vegetables first. I always do this with mushrooms.
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Sue H

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Re: Oak Street Pizza, Watery Veggie?

by Sue H » Mon Mar 24, 2008 10:43 am

I always order the Mediterranean Pizza with the Sicilian crust and never have had a problem. The pizza is actually one of the best I have had in the city.
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Shawn Vest

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Re: Oak Street Pizza, Watery Veggie?

by Shawn Vest » Mon Mar 24, 2008 1:19 pm

i'll second Ron, on occasion some very fresh vegies (or frozen for that matter) will have a huge amount of water in them that is not entirely evaporated in the cooking process,
vegies on top of the cheese usually helps , but the vegies may be a little toasted
extra cheese also has this same threat, but with the added danger of extra grease soaking through the crust

i'd give them a second try, and let them know what happened with your first pie
Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza. D Barry
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Marsha L.

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Re: Oak Street Pizza, Watery Veggie?

by Marsha L. » Tue Mar 25, 2008 8:06 am

can't....stop....fingers....from....typing......


*sigh* - I know I'm gonna get slammed here, but I've kept quiet as long as I can.

When everyone started rhapsodizing about OSP, I got really excited, so on my first "free weekend" (two days off from dieting) after that (this was about mid-February), we ordered a spinach, mushroom and sausage pie on whole wheat crust for delivery. I can't remember the owner's name, but he was ultra friendly on the phone, and Casey delivered our pizza himself. And, this neither here nor there except to hopefully show that I was not at all dubious that it would be an exemplary pizza: I tipped him $10 just because I thought it was so nice for them to deliver all the way to the Highlands.

Well...without exaggerating, I have to say it was one of the worst pizzas I've ever had. We actually could not finish eating it. The crust was really, really tough (and yes I know this is a risk you take when you order whole wheat crust, but everyone here just kept saying how DIVINE it was), and, well, the spinach was NOT fresh instead of frozen like they had earlier claimed, and it had an odd, off-putting musty flavor to it. Worst of all, the sausage was that ultra-cheap, frozen "coin-shaped" sausage that's mostly filler. You know, when you bite into it it's kinda white and mealy inside.

As I threw out the remains, I thought "wow, that's probably the first time in my life I've ever thrown away fully uneaten slices of pizza."

I know, I know, it was probably a fluke; 50,000 Elvis fans can't be wrong, right? But I cannot imagine ordering from them again, based on that experience. Too many solid pizza places in this town for that.

Sorry, guys - two thumbs way, way down from us.
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Re: Oak Street Pizza, Watery Veggie?

by Ron Johnson » Tue Mar 25, 2008 9:03 am

Marsha L. wrote:Sorry, guys - two thumbs way, way down from us.


Marsha, thanks for the honest report. The sausage "coins" are a red flag for me.
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Re: Oak Street Pizza, Watery Veggie?

by Robin Garr » Tue Mar 25, 2008 9:43 am

Marsha L. wrote:can't....stop....fingers....from....typing...... ...

Sorry, guys - two thumbs way, way down from us.

No harm done, Marsha! I'm glad my experience (posted in LEO a while back) was better - we bought a pie hot on the premises and took it away, and I thought it was great - but your report is fair. And I bet if the OSP guys are reading, they'll want to try to make it right for you.
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Marsha L.

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Re: Oak Street Pizza, Watery Veggie?

by Marsha L. » Tue Mar 25, 2008 1:36 pm

The worst part of the whole thing was that I was so excited for them, about all the positive buzz. Lord knows those of us in the business are painfully aware of how difficult it is to get a brand-new restaurant off the ground, especially a little specialty place like OSP. So we WANT them to succeed. Luckily, the positive reviews far, far outweigh my negative.

I struggled for a month, knowing I should probably post my negative experience for the sake of balance, but I didn't want to be a fly in their ointment. But when I saw Ray's post I thought maybe now was a good time, especially on a new thread that wasn't brimming over with accolades. And, to be fair, I wasn't just ambivalent about that pizza (in which case I would gladly have said nothing); instead, we thought it was actively bad. But really, who knows? The crust issue might have been a one-time thing, maybe somebody got on the phone and left the mixer on too long, and it got tough. Sometimes it's a tough call whether to throw something out that might be marginal, especially when you're struggling. But the spinach and sausage issues are something they could definitely do something about. Oh, and I don't remember having bad thoughts about the sauce, and I'm super-picky about the flavor profile in marinaras, so the sauce must have been decent, just overshadowed by the other problems.


I really, really do wish them luck....but I also wish they'd spring for some nicer sausage :wink:

(Edited to say "when I saw Ray's post" instead of "Leah's post" - sorry, girl, didn't mean to pin that one on ya!)
Last edited by Marsha L. on Tue Mar 25, 2008 2:05 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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R. N. Dominick

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Re: Oak Street Pizza, Watery Veggie?

by R. N. Dominick » Tue Mar 25, 2008 1:49 pm

Marsha L. wrote:Well...without exaggerating, I have to say it was one of the worst pizzas I've ever had. We actually could not finish eating it. The crust was really, really tough (and yes I know this is a risk you take when you order whole wheat crust, but everyone here just kept saying how DIVINE it was), and, well, the spinach was NOT fresh instead of frozen like they had earlier claimed, and it had an odd, off-putting musty flavor to it. Worst of all, the sausage was that ultra-cheap, frozen "coin-shaped" sausage that's mostly filler. You know, when you bite into it it's kinda white and mealy inside. [...] As I threw out the remains, I thought "wow, that's probably the first time in my life I've ever thrown away fully uneaten slices of pizza."


I'm not going to slam you for this report, because my experience ordering from Oak Street Pizza was very similar (even down to having it ordered to the Highlands -- hello, neighbor!). I ordered pepperoni and sausage on whole wheat crust and some garlic knots. Nothing special about the toppings at all, a terrible crust, and the knots were just cold and tough. I actually went down to Impellizzeri's the next day just because the whole experience had left me wanting a good pizza. Ordering in is a rare thing for me, a treat, and it was a shame it went so poorly. I can't imagine ordering from them again either.
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Re: Oak Street Pizza, Watery Veggie?

by Marsha L. » Tue Mar 25, 2008 3:07 pm

R. N. Dominick wrote:and the knots were just cold and tough.



Rats, I forgot the knots. Disappointing is the nicest thing I can say about them. Cold and tough, that's exactly what they were. Yuck.
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Casey Smith

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Re: Oak Street Pizza, Watery Veggie?

by Casey Smith » Wed Apr 09, 2008 12:39 am

Ray and Marsha, thank you for your honesty, without criticism our restaurant would not be able to learn, and create, what our customers deem to be the best.

The Mediterranean is usually not a watery pie, though i will not say it couldn't steam in its box while in a hot bag.

Also, when making crust from scratch, the proportions can sometimes be off, but we feel we have a consistently delicious crust, with just the right amount of crisp, but with enough puffy crust to eat alone. God knows I've eaten my fair share of pizza sitting around here every day, and I've honestly yet to not enjoy our crust.

As far as knots go, they usually arrive good and hot, from the steam of the pizza, though if you found they didn't, let us know over the phone, or in person in your next order. We'll make sure they arrive piping hot.

In reference to our ingredients:
the spinach is most certainly fresh baby spinach, and has been since the day I stated on this forum it would be.
the sausage is a mild Italian sausage, which we cook, and slice ourselves, containing no filler.
We use only the best ingredients we have available to produce consistent, quality pizza.

I regret having served you a pie that didn't blow your mind, and hope that you give us another chance.

Casey Smith and the Oak Street Pizza crew.
Old Louisville's Own
Oak Street Pizza
Serving The Derby City's Best Pie
Since 2007
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Marsha L.

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Re: Oak Street Pizza, Watery Veggie?

by Marsha L. » Wed Apr 09, 2008 5:37 am

Casey, thanks for the classy response. I hope your boss knows what an asset you are to his team.
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Derrick Dones

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Re: Oak Street Pizza, Watery Veggie?

by Derrick Dones » Wed Apr 09, 2008 11:17 am

Marsha is 100% correct. Casey Smith is a huge asset to OSP. He's provided me with pizza and salad info, taken my order, and delivered pies all the way out to the Hikes Point / Bowman Field area (he probably contributed to the making of the pizza too)...additionally he always seems like a very happy and friendly guy. Rockin' a MF Doom t-shirt only raised his stock in my book! I truly hope that Oak Street Pizza continues to be a success.

I have had OSP delivered to the house three times. I understand that it is quite a haul (for a pizza delivery) from old Louisville to my neck of the woods...so I really appreciate the effort. 2 out of 3 times the pizza was perfect (better than Papa John's and they are right around the corner on Taylorsville Rd.), the garlic knots were hot, garlicky, and maybe just a bit to buttery (but oh so good), and the Ceaser salad was more than enough to split between two people. On one occasion I did get a pie that wasn't the greatest. It wasn't very hot and I felt like I was possibly the last stop on multiple deliveries. I could see this same issue (or the steaming of the pie in the box during the longer than normaldrive) contributing to the problems that Marsha and others experienced. With that said, I will order pizza again from OSP...I might just pick it up myself and eat it w/ my mom and dad. They live in the G-town / Audobon park area.

When the pizza is at its best...it is some of the finest NY style in Louisville. I am often torn between Oak St. and Hero's when orderring. Keep supporting OSP, and if you had an issue, I'm sure Casey and his team will make it right!

Thanks. DD

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