Takeout Pie of the Month: Borgata Pizza Cafe

Business in the Northland area of Columbus by brought me
into contact with this still under-the-radar pizzeria in Borgata

With my spouse out with friends and I cruising the north area of Columbus visiting places along State Route 161 in the late afternoon, I was thinking of what I should be having for dinner. While there are quite a few ethnic options (many yet to be explored) found along this stretch of road between I-71 and the eastern edge of I-270, nothing was particularly hitting me in the culinary sweet spot at the time. After finishing up my last bit of shopping for the day, I sat in my car and pondered this conundrum for a bit and finally resorted to a rule that's generally worked well for me:

"When all else fails, pizza."

For me, pizza almost always works as a fallback option for me, and secondly, I'm still in the midst of my Columbus-area pizza discovery quest. Thus, I took a quick look for promising candidates in the area using my mobile device and one nearby contender shot immediately to the top of my radar in the form of Borgata Pizza Cafe.

Atmosphere: With the service road setup of Route 161, there's just no way you can spot the family-owned Borgata while driving by on that main thoroughfare, or even suspect that any other businesses of any sort lie behind the Taco Bell/Dunkin' Donuts combo that fronts the road right next to the intersection with Parkville Street.

You just simply wouldn't suspect Borgata has been plugging away at its
spot behind the Dunkin' Donuts at Parkville and Route 161

While Borgata's exterior may reflect the 1970s/1980s strip mall vibe that many of the businesses in the area sport, its interior is a completely different story with its brick-lined walls, chalkboard style overhead menu, decent amount of available in-house seating, and wide-open view into the kitchen area. You can simply watch Borgata's crew work on those pizzas, or perhaps stare into the dessert case and tempt yourself with their brownies, ricotta cakes or cannoli. Other staples like calzones, wings, housemade pasta dishes and salads fill out Borgata's regular menu.

A neat little touch was provided by the staff when they brought my pizza to me. Many places will just hand you the box; here at Borgata, they opened up the box to let you view the pie. While the gesture I'm sure was done to make sure the pizza met my satisfaction, the mere sight of as well as the scent rising from this fresh from the oven pie had the added pleasurable effect of whetting my appetite that much more.

Pizza (Hot): Borgata advertises its pizza as New York styled, and indeed the pie's crust is appropriately thin without being Columbus-styled thin. On this pizza (the small supreme) the crust was definitely a bonus here, with a nice thicker outer ring, a lightly airy and chewy texture, and a crust that flopped closer to the center. If you're into folding your pizza, these slices easily fit that bill. The sauce itself was a sweeter sauce; while I prefer a more spicier sauce, the spice from the proteins on top put enough zest in each bite to make this overall a very enjoyable pie.

Pizza (Cold): I kind of wondered how this pizza would hold up to refrigeration, considering it was a supreme pizza and naturally floppy to start with. To my mild surprise, the crust actually firmed up to a more chewy consistency and held the weight of the toppings pretty well. Definitely doable as a straight-out-of-the-refrigerator slice, but I can easily see this being great reheated as well.

After having my pie, I found some more positives about Borgata from various folks who would be in the know like the CMH Gourmand, Pizza Slayer and Pie Are Round. Let me add my voice to the chorus here - Borgata is definitely worth seeking out for a good slice or two.

Borgata Pizza Cafe
5701 Parkville St (Northland - Google Maps)
Columbus, OH 43229
(614) 891-2345
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Memorial Day Musings, Part 2: Honeykiss Bakery

As a child, pies were generally something you bought from the frozen aisle at the store every now and then as a treat for me and my siblings.  It wasn't until my later years that I got to enjoy my first baked from homemade pie.  I still don't mind the grocery store version at your average picnic or barbecue, but a pie baked from scratch is generally something to be savored very slowly and with utmost delight.

I came to find out that I married into a pie-loving family.  At all the big family gatherings, there were all sorts of crusted examples of baked goodness, some of which had been passed down from previous generations.  I've also learned that my new home here has plenty of delectable examples of this baked good.

We hadn't decided what our contribution to the family get-together on Memorial Day would be as I was perusing one of my favorite local area blogs (The CMH Gourmand) when I happened on a post mentioning our subject line establishment: Honeykiss Bakery.  I had learned about and glanced at their website several months prior, posting a note to my brain back then that this site would be worth revisiting again.

Well, why not bring a pie?  It was time to check out the Honeykiss Bakery website again.  Sure enough, the bakery was taking orders for Memorial Day, but they needed to be put in within a couple days.

My spouse is a cherry fiend, and it's not a surprise that cherry pie is one of her favorite foods ever.  Honeykiss has a Cherry Cobbler and a Cherry Pistachio Pie on their menu that sounded awfully tempting.  But we're also fans of Brothers Drake mead and other brewed beverages in general, so when we read the bakery's description of their "My Blueberry Heaven Pie" together, even she had to agree that this would be our choice:

Our award-winning creamy blueberry pie features blueberry filling reduced in cinnamon, Brothers Drake Blueberry Mead & lemon.  Between the blueberry filling and the sugar-lemon streusel topping, is a creamy layer of Snowville Creme Fraiche, locally sourced eggs, & Rockmill Belgian Ale.

Because of our itinerary, we shot an e-mail to the owner Rachel to see if we could pick it up sometime after lunch on Saturday; she responded back quickly saying it would be no problem.  So after the Asian Festival (written about in a previous post) we skedaddled over to Grandview Heights to pick up our goodies.

A happy placard with the bakery's name greeted us at the entrance to the townhouse/bakery, located in a residential area not too far from Grandview's main drag.  We were invited in but not immediately greeted by Rachel, but in the kitchen we could see the freshly baked chocolate chip cookies resting on the counter that dominated the generally wonderful scents of freshly baked goods.

Shortly after, Rachel popped in, decked out with apron and cherry smile, though both my wife and I could tell this was not going to be a restful holiday for her.  We chatted for a bit on how we came to know of her business through the blog (while she did not know him personally, she had the pleasure of baking up a few goodies for the Gourmand), our love of the ingredients she used for the pie, and family gathering plans to pair up the pie along with very same mead she had used in her recipe.  She sounded quite excited for us, and we promised we would let her know how the pie went over.

Suffice it to say, the pie was a hit.  Unlike lesser blueberry pies where the filling is much too sweet, the blueberries provided all the needed sweetness, offset quite nicely by the tang of the lemon in both the surrounding filling and the topping itself.  The creamy layer between the topping and the filling and the from-scratch crust  just added another sublime touch that made each bite worth savoring.

I think a cherry pie from Honeykiss is calling our name sometime in the future...

Honeykiss Bakery

1665 King Ave (Grandview Heights)

Columbus, OH 43212

(614) 620-6689

Website

2017 Update: Sadly, Honeykiss Bakery appears to have ceased operations around September 2016. What I wouldn't do for another slice of their peanut butter pie <sad face>