I love football, and I love basketball. This week's review should appeal to the sports fans who share an affection for sports. This week, we visited The Original Impellizzeri's on Main Street, which is diagonally across the street from the KFC Yum! Center, home of the Louisville Cardinals.
Since you asked (I assume you did), I am a Louisville graduate...and by extension, a Louisville fan. Because I'm a UofL fan, I just have to mention that the 5-overtime game against Notre Dame on Saturday was INSANE. I had intended to write my post during the game (and hopefully catch a few more readers online during that same time), but it was just too hard to look away. It was like the GoDaddy.com commercial from the Super Bowl last week. You know which one I'm talking about.
The Original Impellizzeri's is a very popular place around town, especially on game days.
Read more for one of my fancy pictures!
Katie and I wanted to go some place downtown, so I narrowed it down to two restaurants...Impellizzeri's and Spinelli's, places neither Katie or I had ever been before. I did what any responsible adult would do and I asked facebook which one we should choose, and the answer was a landslide vote for Impellizzeri's. (Have no fear, we'll visit Spinelli's at some point this year, I'm sure.)
We visited Impellizzeri's for a Saturday afternoon lunch, which I'm glad we did. Every time that I've been past this place, it has been PACKED. I'm talking every seat with a bottom in it, and an hour wait just to sit down. Eating at lunchtime allowed me to see just how big this place is inside, which is even bigger than I expected. It blows my mind that this place is ever full, which bears testament to just how popular this restaurant is, especially on the weekends during the sports seasons.
A little more on the interior: The tables had red/white checkered tables, and "Ave Maria" was playing when we walked in, which gave a nice Italian ambiance. Then, the music shifted to light 70's rock and oldies for the remainder of our meal, which was easy on the ears. They also have a full bar visible as soon as you walk in the front door.
If you're going for game day or not, know that there are a lot of TVs here. They've even got a large screen with a projector! (I love projector screens, I totally want one in my house.) Half the TVs were on the "ESPN Buzzer Beater" channel, which switches from game to game every few minutes. Lunchtime on a Saturday meant I got to watch DePaul do DePaul things against Marquette.
Shout out to Charlie Strong's 9th favorite "blog", and my personal favorite, Card Chronicle. (Side note: can blogs be friends? Please tell me they can. No matter what happens the rest of this year, 2013 would be the best year in my life if my blog could be friends with Card Chronicle.)
On to the food!
We ordered the "cheesestix", and ohmygodtheyweresofilling. Yep, read it out loud, cause that's how it sounded in my head. Say it that fast. We didn't even FINISH the cheesestix before we started getting full, and the pizza hadn't even come out yet. We decided to hold off on the last two stix to save room for at least some of the pizza.
As usual, we ordered a large pepperoni, light on the sauce. This place is known for piling on the toppings, and even with our minimal order, it was a hefty pizza. We took home a little over half the pizza and two cheesestix, and the box felt like it was two or three pizzas stacked on top of each other.
The crust is home made by Impellizzeri's, and the "original" crust we ordered was slightly thicker than a thin crust in the middle, and thicker on the outsides. It's a little dry and chewy, but not too crispy. Katie prefers crispy crust, so only one of us was happy with it. The sauce is REALLY sweet for a pizza sauce.
The cheese....oh, the cheese. Never have I seen a pizza that had cheese so melty as this one. I had to cut the cheese with a fork to separate the pieces. I love that!
(Time elapses)
Leftover test!
We had so much left over, that we were able to eat on it twice and still have some left in the fridge.
The first time was under 24 hours in the fridge. I ate only one piece cold, because it didn't particularly look as good cold. I reheated some for Katie and threw a piece or two in for myself to see if she's crazy or not. Boy was I wrong about the look of it. BEST. COLD. PIZZA. EVER.
Reheated, the pizza and the cheesestix were really dry, but the pizza was still acceptable. I wouldn't do the cheesestix in the oven again. (Did I eat it anyways? You know I did.)
Second reheating test: not so good. The cold pizza? Still awesome.
Overall grades:
Service: We had a good server, but I've heard the service is unusually slow during crowded times. I can't vouch for it personally, but keep in mind that the deep dish pizzas take 45 minutes to bake, and there are only so many ovens in the kitchen. (Grade: B+)
Atmosphere: Good music, lots of TVs, a bar, and the possibility of breaking out in a C-A-R-D-S chant on game day? Easy choice. (Grade: A+)
Taste: Awesome pizza, as long as you can finish it there or you like it cold. Don't reheat it. (Grade: B)
Accessibility: Impellizzeri's doesn't have a parking area, so you're on your own and likely going to have to pay for parking somewhere. There are two other locations around town, if this is an issue. Seems wheelchair accessible. (Grade: B)
The grades don't necessarily reflect it, but I loved the intangibles of this place. Kate and I are definitely going back.
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