Austin Pizza Garden First-class pies, and a history test By Dale Rice American-Statesman Restaurant Critic Thursday, July 5, 2001 You can date us by the pepperoni. If the "old rock store" near the "Y" in Oak Hill has always been a pizza place, you're a relative newcomer to Austin. If you stopped by there to pick up some organic herbs and a bag of bat guano, you were here before the mid-'90s. That's when Garden-Ville, the well-known organic nursery, moved to old Bee Caves Road and Austin Pizza Garden, a family-owned restaurant, took over the long stone building near the intersection of William Cannon Drive and U.S. 290 West. It has turned out to be a good location for a restaurant, too. Austin Pizza Garden was bustling each of three times I stopped by. Families. Groups of teens. Older couples. The age range easily spanned 80 years on two of those nights. And most people, if my unscientific survey of the dining room is reliable, were there for pizza, with a smattering of lasagna, salads and sandwiches. While diners can construct their own special combos from more than 50 potential toppings, I sampled four of the signature pies, all of which included tomato sauce with Romano mozzarella and provolone cheese: • Half colossus/half Texas T-bone ($10.55 for the regular, 10-inch, six-piece pie). The colossus features pepperoni, Italian sausage, ham, mushrooms, red onions, green peppers and black olives, while the T-bone has tender, smoky steak strips, red onions, mushrooms, red and green bell peppers and fresh garlic. • Garden ($10.55 for the regular), with spinach, artichoke hearts, avocado, red onions, green peppers, black olives and ricotta cheese. • Margherita ($9.50 for the regular), with fresh basil, fresh tomatoes, fontina cheese and fresh garlic (my personal favorite). With a thin, crisp crust that nearly had the consistency of a cracker at the edge, each of the pizzas was good -- good enough to bring me back for more. You may contact Dale Rice at drice@statesman.com or 445-3859. | ||||
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