Columbus Pizza-politan Adventures: Ohio Pizza Cage Match! (Pt. 2)

Cincinnati's Dewey's Pizza sports a decent inventory of craft beer,
including seasonal selections from various Ohio breweries

This first of this two part "Ohio Pizza Cage Match" mini-series of blog posts started off by looking at two area locals, both long-time purveyors of the Columbus-style pizza in Donatos and Massey's (for a look at that previous post, please take a look at this link.)

Their opponents, if you will, are the out-of-towners, originating from opposite ends of Interstate 75 on the west side of the state and sporting decidedly different styles of pizza.  While they don't have the combined experience of their Columbus counterparts, they do bring it in terms of enjoyable pies.

Columbus Pizzapolitan Adventures (May 2018)

It's alive! The Greater Columbus Pizza Map is alive and kicking,
with three updates since its launch in February of this year

When I finished out my Greater Columbus Pizza Map earlier this year (for the story of that quest, check out this blog post and this one for the cheesy details), a discussion with my fellow blogger CMH Gourmand shortly afterward stuck with me. As he noted, one cannot dine on exclusively off the best gourmet pizzas of the metro unless one is ridiculously well off, and you if you look hard enough, you can find some measure of pizza satisfaction across all of the pie spectrums.

Indeed, feeding a field trip sized bus full of hungry elementary children with 20 large pizzas from a place like Natalie's Coal Fired or Harvest Pizzeria ain't economically feasible for most.  With that said, you would prefer not to feed your kids the dreck of the pizza world either.

In summary, I'm taking a little different tack (and inspiration) from the map and the subsequent discussion. Obviously, a pie from Harvest is almost certainly going to be significantly better than a pie from Little Caesars, but in some ways that's an unfair comparison as they sport different price points, different styles of pizza, and in many ways, striving for different audiences.

So which pizza pies are just plain good, which ones don't cut the mustard, and which ones punch above their weight? I figure delving into a couple of pizza places per month would be a good way to entertain this quest.

First Look: Leone's Pizza

As we have discovered, the area within and surrounding the city of Worthington is loaded with pizza options, from the old timers (Pizza House and Villa Nova, to name two) to the newcomers (Natalie's Coal Fired Pizza and Cincinnati-based Dewey's.) Some might say there's too much pizza available around this area compared to other options, but pizza lovers may consider that to be a sacrilegious notion.

You can now add Leone's Pizza to these throngs of pie makers and, based on our first tasting, this is one to keep an eye on.

Leone's Pizza opened last Friday in the old Pizza Mart space in Salem Village, As this was my first visit to this location, it was plainly obvious that this small space is geared more to takeout. However, they actually do a good job of stuffing in more tables and chairs than you think might fit within this eatery's footprint.

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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