The bread is the thing with Wheated's excellent thin sourdough crust and charred edge; but the traditional New York-style toppings are worthy, too.
You wouldn’t expect Brooklyn’s Flatbush neighborhood to have a deep resonance with Louisville, but that erroneous conclusion overlooks the importance of Harold Henry “Pee Wee” Reese.
Reese, a native of Meade County, Ky., who grew up in Louisville, played shortstop for the old, beloved Brooklyn Dodgers, who played at the storied Ebbets Field in Flatbush. Reese may be most remembered for the public and supportive hug he gave Jackie Robinson, rejecting racist jeers at Major League’s first Black player at a game in Cincinnati in 1947. Reese was also an excellent shortstop, earning his way into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1948. And he made a generation of Kentuckians into Dodgers fans, or so my parents told me.
That was our Flatbush connection then. Now we have another, with the arrival of Hall of Fame level pizza at Wheated Louisville in the Highlands, the second and only branch of Wheated Brooklyn, a pizzeria that has risen to the top of New York City’s fabled pizza scene in just over a decade. Founded in 2013, it quickly earned critical acclaim amid comparisons to local pizza icons like Tottono’s, Grimaldi’s, and Di Farra.
Why would a popular Brooklyn pizzeria spend major bucks to do a gut rehab on an old Bardstown Road bungalow and turn it into their only other location? It’s beyond me, unless it has something to do with Pee Wee Reese … or maybe it’s our bourbon.
Wheated has been a while coming. Sharp eyes at the LouisvilleHotBytes Forum spotted its a building permit in August 2021. It took nearly two years to convert the little building that had housed a skate shop into a stylish, homey pizzeria. It finally opened at the end of June.
We dropped in on a busy Thursday night and did not have a single disappoinment in food, mood, or service. Every component was just right: Stainless silverware, sharp knives with serrated blades, even oversize and strong paper napkins, sturdy reusable takeaway containers, and of course, all of the food.
The Louisville and Brooklyn menus appear similar. Kentuckians get a condensed form with 11 pizzas seemingly identical to the Brooklyn options. Flatbush diners have 18 to choose from. They’re all generous 16-inch pies, and good news: ours are priced $2 to $5 less than our Brooklyn counterparts. They’re all named after Brooklyn neighborhoods, and range in price (in Louisville) from $21 (for the Ditmas Park, a simple tomato-and-cheese pie with basil) to $31 (for the fennel-sausage Canarsie or the meat-and-cheese lovers’ Supreme). Sides here are limited to a handful of salads and a side of meatballs. ...
Read my full review on LouisvilleHotBytes:
https://www.louisvillehotbytes.com/whea ... bush-pizza
You'll also find this review in LEO Weekly's Food & Drink section this week:
http://www.leoweekly.com/category/food-drink/
Wheated Louisville
1553 Bardstown Road
No listed phone
Facebook: bit.ly/WheatedLou
instagram.com/wheatedlouisville
Noise Level: This popular place is usually jammed, and it's not quiet. We were able to carry on a conversation, though, with noise levels running around 78dB.
Accessibility: Multiple steps bar wheelchair access to the front of the building, but a well-built ramp provides convenient access from the large parking lot in the rear.