Campus/Upper Arlington: Tommy's Pizza

Tommy's Pizza is considered a staple of pizza places in Columbus.  Open for over fifty years, Tommy's is a favorite of many in Columbus.

I gotta tell ya, when I attended Ohio State, I was more of a Hound Dogs kind of girl.  I never really went to Tommy's, although there is a restaurant on Lane Avenue.  I just never really tried it.  My friends were all Hound Dogs fans, and when I lived up on Bethel Road, I would frequent Iacono's (which, I am understanding from reading up on Tommy's and from word-of-mouth, was a pizza establishment by the same family.  As you can see from Tommy's website, Tommy's last name is Iacono so there must be some relation, right? Although that's like saying all Patel's are related, which I know clearly isn't true...I digress).

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Columbus.  Bright, blue skies, puffy happy clouds, and lots of sun.  Good day for pizza, right?

My buddies Geoff and Connor and baby Jack ventured out for a good pizza pie.  We traveled to the Tommy's on Lane Avenue, next to the Taco-Bell-turned into a-Pho restaurant which i must try sometime.  Tommy's is very family friendly which is great as we had Jack in tow (although he is a very good little boy).

When you walk into Tommy's, you see old-school fire ovens.  The employees make the pizza in assembly line order; one for dough, one for assembling dough on pan, one for putting toppings on, one for placing pie in oven, one for taking pie out of oven, one for cutting pie with gigantic knife, one to yell to the server to pick up the order.

We sat in the back of Tommy's in a nice booth.  It's great walking into a restaurant where you see families sharing a meal, sharing stories, and plenty of people on date night (including some  grandmas and grandpas that were smitten with baby Jack).  I was put in charge of ordering so I ordered a pepperoni, sausage, and mushroom pizza.  Large of course, as  I was with two dudes with good appetites.

I think that the crust at Tommy's is the best part of the pie.  It is very thin, and crispy like a Ritz cracker.  However, it is sturdy enough that it is able to hold up all of the ingredients.  When you bite into the pizza, you get the nice oozing warmth of freshly baked mozzarella cheese, but that crust, man, it is like crispy, crunchy, and soft.  All of the ingredients together make a nice combination, both with flavor and texture.  Needless to say, our pizza was destroyed, consumed, and the cardboard sheet on which it came on was completely empty.  Even Jack had a piece.

CONCLUSION: I will be putting Tommy's into my rotation.  The pepperoni are kinda wussy though, so I may do without them from now on.