By Dr. Ink
Take away the bar and the TurboChef ovens behind it and it’s easy to imagine when Red House Pizza was a residential bungalow. The property was converted for retail use more than a decade ago, although the framed archways separating the rooms and the French doors leading to a side patio remain gracefully intact.
The eatery has become known for pizzas that fall somewhere between Neapolitan and New York-style. Available in a variety of crusts (whole wheat, thin herb or gluten-free), they cook in less than five minutes in high-tech ovens that combine convection, steam and infrared technologies.
All of them, except for the gluten-free pies, drop 20 percent in price during happy hour Tuesday through Sunday. On Mondays, all day, they’re 30 percent off. The same price breaks apply to sandwiches, craft beers on tap, and wines by the glass.
With a drinking companion in tow, we took a table at the front window, in what was probably the home’s living room. We then received the ultimate compliment from a 20-something waiter when he came to take our drink orders.
“Can I see your IDs?” he asked with a warm smile.
We thought he was joking at first since neither of us has been proofed for alcohol since the days when Fuzzy Navels and Alabama Slammers were in vogue. So we pulled out our driver’s licenses and predetermined he’d receive a nice tip.
New to the beer list, which features about a half-dozen choices, is Mother Earth Boo Koo Mosaic IPA, a refreshing straw-colored brew with toned-down hops and a light grapefruit finish. It’s exactly how I prefer IPAs lately after practically soaking in them over the past couple of years.
My companion eschews the bitterness in them all. So he ordered a dark oatmeal stout by Benchmark Brewing Company sporting the expected smooth black-coffee flavor of stout, but with an ethereal lemon aftertaste. Priced also at $4.80 with the discount, I would have switched to it, but I didn’t want to guzzle heavy-bodied beer with the amount of food we ordered.
In no time, our 14-inch “Seattle” pizza arrived. During happy hour it costs $13.20, which is a steal for the medley of ingredients it includes — white sauce, mozzarella, sausage, roasted tomatoes, arugula and fresh basil. I’ve paid upwards of $25 in other joints for pies of this nature, and came away far less satisfied.
We also sprung for a sandwich of house-made gluten-free meatballs that were shrouded in mozzarella and white onions, and tucked between two slices of thick bread. We loved the toasted pockmarks on the sandwich, which stood vertically on its back crusts and stayed manageably intact while eating it.
With three beers and a whole lot of food consumed, our final cost was $36. We were happy campers.
