Pizza Snob
3051 S University Dr,
Fort Worth 76109
817-462-7662
pizzasnob.com/
Let’s face it … everyone is a Pizza Snob. We all like our pie a certain way, with our own particular combination of toppings. And we don’t like to share with gluttonous friends or family, who always manage to scoop up the best slice for themselves. The first step is admitting your snobbery; only then can you find true healing.
Perfectly positioned right across from campus and around the corner from the Texas Christian University bookstore, Pizza Snob is feeding the modern student’s need for speed. The University Drive location opened in January 2014. Business is so good that Pizza Snob just opened its newest restaurant on July 21 in student-saturated Denton. Both are locally owned and not franchised.
Pizza Hut was on to something when it introduced the personal pan pizza (way back in the day), and Pie Five was off to the races with its affordable, build-your-own assembly line, but Pizza Snob has upped the ante, offering both gourmet ingredients and speedy service.
Belly up to the handsomely hammered, metal-clad topping bar and choose either a regular or gluten-free crust. Monica Murphy has a great title — Snob in Charge (says so on her business card). She tells me that the gluten-free dough is so good it is now her preference. I will be back to experiment with that another time.
Choose either house-made buttermilk alfredo or fresh tomato sauce and then glance at the gourmet toppings such as beer-glazed onions, rosemary goat cheese, red wine baby bellas, candied jalapeños, caramelized pineapple, garlic buttered meatballs, or smoked pulled pork. You will want to try them all, but you can’t. Seriously! There is a four-topping limit so you will have to choose wisely.
One of the owners is a food scientist. A sign by the bar about the four-topping rule reads “Wouldn’t, Couldn’t, Shouldn’t.” Murphy explains, “If you put on more than four items, you cannot taste each individual topping.” So, the corporate philosophy is actually equal parts science and snobbery. Maybe that is why this pizza is so good. We have all been guilty of junking up our pizzas with too many ingredients.
The gleaming Italian Cuppone pizza oven cooks your creation in 90 seconds flat. Before paying and heading to the self-serve drink station featuring Maine Root organically sweetened sodas, consider the cookies positioned temptingly by the cash register. They are baked from scratch by artisan baker Jill Marks. The vanilla bean is iced with the upturned nose of the Pizza Snob logo. Other winners are the classic chocolate chip and the brownie-like mocha java. When asked, the staff will even slide your cookie into the pizza oven to get that melty, just-from-the-oven consistency.
The restaurant interior sports the ever-popular reclaimed/repurposed style, with wooden plank walls, concrete flooring, Edison drop bulb lighting, and rustic wooden tables with comfy chairs.
The Greek Week Pizza will reappear soon, with a special Greek sauce, Kalamata olives, feta cheese and fresh tomato. And look for the Thanksgiving Pizza to come around again in November. Murphy says, “It tastes just like a Thanksgiving meal with turkey and dressing.”
She suggests that non-student patrons and families aim to dine between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. to avoid the noisier co-ed feeding frenzy (my words, not hers). With most complete meals around $10, who can blame them? The lunchtime line is typically out the door, and with limited seating, most take theirs in a to-go box. Oh, and on football game days, forget about it.
If you can time it right, Pizza Snob is providing top-quality gourmet pizzas that easily rival the pricier competition.