House Pizzeria

On Airport Boulevard, pizza worth telling your friends about

By Mike Sutter
AMERICAN-STATESMAN RESTAURANT CRITIC
Thursday, June 11, 2009

Forget everything else on the menu. If House Pizzeria sold nothing but that Margherita Extra pizza with fresh basil, buffalo mozzarella and sweet tomato sauce, I'd clone myself just to form a line around the building.

Thing is, I'd have to wait in that line with the clones of fellow American-Statesman food specialists Addie Broyles and Matthew Odam, who'd be elbowing me out for another shot at the one with Stilton blue cheese and port reduction sauce.

We'd all be in good company at this former KFC building on Airport Boulevard, across the street from the Stallion Grill. In just three months, House Pizzeria has made a case for the idea that there's always room for another great neighborhood pizza place.

Pizza this good inspires manic hyperbole, but it's a classic formula. Take real cheese, fresh produce, excellent meats and if you can't make your own sauce from scratch, at least use the best canned tomatoes you can find. Make some sensible pairings. Then bake it all on a crackling-crisp thin crust with just a little bit of chew to it, a firm ridge around the edge to keep everything in check. House hits just about every mark.

We found common ground for superlatives in the Margherita Extra ($11 for a 12-inch pie with six slices), with every ingredient finding space to shine, and in that 'Blue' pie with Stilton ($10), which seemed like a scary notion at first. Blue cheese and port, on a pizza? No way that tastes right. But the woman who took our order with patient grace at the counter suggested we do a half-and-half, which opened the door to another unexpected white-pizza pairing: roasted rosemary potatoes with goat cheese. That one worked because the thin potato slices lent a breath of herb and earth - but no starchy heaviness - to the salty tang of the goat cheese.

But the Blue was a revelation, the nutty funk of the Stilton countered and complemented by the sweet-and-sour notes of the port wine sauce, drizzled with the economy of a dry spice to keep the crust sharp and crisp.

Only the crust on a sausage and mushroom pie with roasted red peppers ($13) failed to stay on-point, weighed down by the combined moisture of the tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, peppers and sausage (crumbled, aromatic with fennel and made in-house, we were told). The taste was right-on, though.

The pizzas came out hot and one at a time, delivered to the screened side patio by the same woman who took our order. This is a counter-service place, but she looked after us as well as any waiter, also bringing water in a frosty glass bottle with a flip-top stopper, along with a sweet bottle of Mexican Coke (is there anything better with pizza?) and an Italian soda made with tart pomegranate syrup. On a different day, those choices could have veered to one of nine top-flight draft beers (because yes, there IS something better than Mexican Coke with pizza).

We also liked the mixed-greens salad with walnuts, goat cheese and fresh-sliced strawberries ($5.75), more proof that House knows how to blend salt, sweetness and textures. But next time, I'll pocket the $4.75 we spent on a warm ramekin of olives and garlic cloves and save it for more of that pie. Or I'll feed it to the jukebox, a knowing wink of styles to suit the irony-minded hipster: Merle Haggard and Jimi Hendrix, George Jones and Nina Simone, Beastie Boys and Flaming Lips.

My clones and I are partial to 'If Drinkin' Don't Kill Me (Her Memory Will).'

msutter@statesman.com; 912-5902

House Pizzeria

5111 Airport Blvd. 600-4999, www.housepizzeria.com

Rating: 8.2 out of 10

Hours: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays. Closed Mondays.

Prices: Pizzas $8 (plain cheese) to $13 (sausage and mushroom), averaging $10. Salads $5.75. Appetizers $2 (olives) to $4.75 (roasted olives).

Payment: All major cards

Bar: Beer is the big deal here, with nine standouts on tap (Live Oak Hefeweizen, 512 IPA, Firemans #4 and Full Moon Pale Rye among them) for around $4 a pint - except for the Lindeman's Framboise Lambic Ale, a Belgian raspberry exotic for $6.50 a half-pint. From 3 to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, draft beer is $1 off. For wine drinkers, House carries three reds (including Becker Iconoclast cabernet for $5.25 a glass), a white ($3.25), a rosé ($4.25) and a sparkler ($6.50). Sparkling lemon-rosemary white wine sangria is $15 per pitcher.

Wheelchair access: Yes