Bar Pizza Tasting Tour
This page originally created April 16, 2023 and last updated April 17, 2023
Back to Bar Pizza HomeIntroduction
The week of April 2, 2023, my wife and I were in Massachusetts to visit family for Easter.
I've been working on developing my own South Shore Bar Pizza recipe at home in North Carolina, so I wanted to use this opportunity to try some of the better-known or iconic places known for this style.
Of the four places on our list for this trip, we tried five of them.
This is a cleaned up version of the notes I took on this adventure.
1. Lynwood Cafe
April 3, 2023 - Randolph, MA
Menu
Ordered
- 1 half cheese half hamburg
- 1 Bean Special (Boston baked beans, onions, salami)
- Side of pizza sauce
Crust
It was crispy but not crunchy or crackery, without too much rise. Reminded me of when the dough I was making used mostly all purpose flour.
The oil they used had no discernible taste to it. It was definitely on the more neutral side. I hear the older places use cottonseed oil and that would track.
The slices had some flop to them when you tried to pick them up.
Sauce
The sauce here was great! It was so simple. I was told it's just good quality tomatoes, salt, and pepper.
The texture had small chunks but it was liquid enough to pour.
Cheese
I believe the cheese here was a mixture of cheddar and mozzarella.
It was pretty standard and flecked with oregano.
I was told that you want to use a mild cheddar because you "don't want your pizza to taste like a cheese board".
Toppings
The cheese was great, very solid.
The hamburg was definitely just ground beef, not much to seasoning there. I had expected it to be a seasoned beef product like at the greek "House of Pizza" type places.
The Bean Special was really interesting. I expected it to be heavier than it was. The salami was diced really finely and the onions blended right in. I think these elements really made it work.
Notes
Pizzas here take about 25 minutes to cook. They use deck ovens at about 600°F. They also use custom pans.
If you order it "laced" they bring the cheese and sauce to the edge. It still has a little crust lip which makes it easy to hold onto.
The staff at Lynwood were by far the friendliest of all the spots we tried. We had an awesome time here.
The tomato sauce they use is good ground tomatoes from Modesto, California, with salt and pepper. It was really top notch and probably our favorite of the pizza sauces we tried.
I was also told that they only use sugar for the coffee here. That means none in the dough or sauce.
The Lynwood Cafe has been open since 1949 and when you eat there you understand why it's been around so long.
2. Poopsie's
April 4, 2023 - Pembroke, MA
Menu
Ordered
- 1 half cheese half hamburg
- 1 House Special (mushroom, onion, pepper, and pepperoni)
- Side of pizza sauce
Crust
Crispy with no flop whatsoever. Crust also has some lift to it like when I do the bread flour.
I think the crust here tasted great. Maybe my favorite crust of the places we tried.
We couldn't tell what oil it was. I did ask, and they told me it was just vegetable oil in the pan.
Sauce
Very smooth. Sweet light taste. Not very salty. Definitely has skins it it but is blended. Super pourable.
Cheese
Reminds me of Papa Gino's. Little more cheddar tang than Lynwood. Papa Gino's uses a blend of mozzarella, cheddar, and romano with some oregano mixed in.
A table near us got a pizza with ghost pepper cheese and said it was amazing. Our waitress said nobody else does that one and they grate their cheese in house.
Toppings
Hamburg tastes like ground beef that was browned maybe with a little salt. Slightly more seasoned than Lynwood Cafe.
The House Special is similar to what we put on the bar pizzas I've been making at home. It was great, a real classic combo. Their pepperoni is wonderfully zesty and salty.
Notes
This cook also took about 25 minutes.
They grate all their cheese in house.
The dough here was closer to the bread flour texture when I used more of that.
I was told they use a mixture of Wesson [vegetable] oil and olive oil in their dough here. Other than that the dough is just flour, water, and yeast.
The vibe here was neighborhood bar day drinking and Red Sox.
3. Bardo's
April 6, 2023 - South Boston, MA
Menu
Ordered
- 1 Social Climber (Lombardo's sausage, red onion, Mama Lil's peppers)
Crust
Crispy but still flexible. First impression was cracker like. Small bubbles. Couldn't tell what oil it was
Notably, unlike the other places we went, the crust here had been docked before baking.
Sauce
I did not order a side of pizza sauce so I can only interpolate from the pie I had.
Right to the edge. The sauce here was zestier than at the 'just seasoned tomatoes' places, but not as outrageous as Cape Cod Cafe's.
Cheese
Bardo's uses a blend of sharp cheddar and mozzarella. It was very similar to the at-home recipes I've been following.
Notably, I think it was the only place on this trip that used sharp cheddar.
The cheese was laced to the edges of the pan by default.
Toppings
The sausage was small crumbles, and was well-seasoned. I couldn't really tell what was spicy on this one, but overall it made for enjoyable eating.
That said, these toppings were the hardest on my stomach of all the ones we had on this trip.
Notes
Bardo's is inside Castle Island Brewing in Southie. It's a very modern bar and a very modern take on bar pizza.
Bardo's cooks their pies in a Lincoln conveyor oven. It was just to the right of the main bar.
One of my friends got the pickle pizza and let me take a picture. I heard it was really good, but that pickle pizza is something Town Spa is known for.
The kitchen was set back a little bit from the bar, but had a window to the main area. I tried talking to the bartender about how they do their pizza but he was unaware.
I did not note how long the cook was, but from the timestamps on my photos it was likely just under 15 minutes.
4. Town Spa
April 7, 2023 - Stoughton, MA
Menu
Ordered
- 1 order of mozzarella sticks
- 1 plain cheese
- 1 pickle
- Side of pizza sauce
Crust
The crust here was good. Small lip to grab onto but the cheese and sauce regularly encroached on that in a good way. Gave it a variable texture we enjoyed.
Sauce
The sauce here tasted like stewed tomatoes. Almost like when we buy the Wegman's coarse ground tomatoes, before seasoning them with salt.
It was smooth and sweet, with no skins or seeds, but not runny. Looks like it has black pepper flakes.
Cheese
The cheese here was insanely good. It was really browned with a nice "chew" to it.
I asked about it and was told it's just good cheddar from Vermont. It had this excellent chew and pull to it, so it was definitely on the more mild / less mature side of cheddar.
Toppings
It was Good Friday so we couldn't have meat today. On a recommendation, we tried the pickle pizza.
It was surprisingly good. They definitely used dill pickles with some crunch to them, and they were really good. It worked so well.
Notes
Probably our favorite overall pizzas of the trip.
The cheese was our favorite of all the places we tried.
I bet fresh dill with good cheddar would be a good combo.
I've heard that Town Spa switched from deck ovens to conveyor ovens at some point, and the regulars claim it makes a difference.
Not pizza, but the mozzarella sticks were insanely good here.
5. Cape Cod Cafe
April 8, 2023 - Brockton, MA
Menu
Ordered
- 1 half plain cheese, half pepperoni
- 1 buffalo chicken
- 1 chicken broccoli alfredo
- Side of pizza sauce
Crust
Neutral cooking oil. Likely vegetable or cottonseed. Crispy and also chewy in a good way. Slice doesn’t bend too much when you pick it up.
The crust on the chicken broccoli alfredo pizza had a lot more lift to it than the others. It was super crunchy. Probably had a slightly longer cook because of all the toppings.
Sauce
Wildly herbaceous. Very oregano forward. Pourable but still thick. No tomato skins or seeds to speak of and no stewed tomato taste. Very very oregano forward.
Cheese
Right to the edges. Definitely a blend of cheddar and mozzarella.
The cheese on the specialty pies got a really great cruch to it at the edges without being burned.
Toppings
Cape Cod Cafe is known for their wide pepperonis. I figured we had to try them. They were pretty good and tasted like regular pepperoni, only wider.
The specialties are exciting but not too bold. Classic house of pizza style specialties but in bar pizza form.
The buffalo chicken was basically the same as the buffalo chicken pizza you can get in any House of Pizza. It was really solid and my wife enjoyed it a lot. The chicken was good and the sauce was classic New England pizza place buffalo sauce, definitely from a distributor.
The chicken broccoli alfredo had a little too much of the not-amazing alfredo sauce on top. Overall it was a great riff on a specialty pizza many places around Mass sell. The cheese on this one was really bomb.
Notes
They say Cape Cod Cafe is the original bar pizza. It definitely seemed closer to an iteration on the Greek pan pizzas around than its own thing.
Cape Cod Cafe had the worst service of all of the places we went. Nobody would bite when I tried to ask questions.
The cook time here was about 30 minutes.
Notably, this was the only of the "classic" spots (read: not Bardo's) that took credit cards.
Conclusions & Overall Thoughts
Our favorite place overall was Town Spa, although they might have had our least favorite pizza sauce.
Our favorite pizza sauces were Lynwood Cafe and Poopsie's, and they both kept it really simple.
Mild cheddar from Vermont seems to be the number one cheese. I hear that it's a restaurant supply version of Cabot Mild White Cheddar.
Baked beans on pizza actually works.
Pickles belong on pizza.