When my husband, Bobby, and I go out for a date night on a Wednesday, we usually end up at CW Burgerstein in the basement of TJ’s Restaurant for their wing special. Bobby and I both really love their wings. Which you can read why here. They are really good. However, on a recent Wednesday night, Bobby suggested we try the “new” pizza restaurant, Your Pizza Shop. And while I was really hungry for wings, I was up for trying something new.
I say “new” in quotes because there have been other Your Pizza Shops in Wooster, but years ago. This time around it is located on East Liberty Street at the end of Beall Avenue. The restaurant has been opened for a couple of months and has seen their customer base grow.
Bobby and I wanted to try a sampling of much of what they offer, so we decided to go with the Family Special, which is a 3 topping pizza and an 8 piece chicken dinner and jo-jo’s. At the last minute, we decided to add an order of jalapeno poppers, too.
The restaurant is mostly a carry-out place, although they do have a few tables and a counter at the front window with stools, so you could order and eat on-site. That is what we decided to do. In fairness to any pizza, the sooner you can enjoy it, the better it is. If you pick up a pizza to take home or even have it delivered, it loses something in the translation. By the time you get to enjoy it, it has most likely cooled down. So, by ordering and eating it there, we had to ability to taste everything fresh — right from the kitchen.
Our jalapeno poppers came out first. They were really good. Nicely filled with quite a bit of cream cheese. Very hot (hot–heat wise, not spicy). The only thing I would have done differently was to have it come with a sweet dipping sauce. They come with pizza sauce to dip in, which doesn’t really do it for me with poppers. We were able to get some ranch dressing for dipping.
Next came our pizza. Bobby and I are totally different when it comes to what we like on our pizza. While I am huge on getting as many toppings as possible to fit on a pie, Bobby is much more the minimalist. He would be happy if we only ordered cheese pizza all the time. We have learned to compromise and have settled on our “go-to” pizza, which is pepperoni and bacon. The special, though, was for 3 toppings. Bobby asked if we could have extra cheese as the third topping and we could. Sometimes, a restaurant won’t allow extra cheese to count as a topping. So we had a gorgeous pizza with pepperoni, bacon and extra cheese delivered to our table.
Again, getting a pizza fresh from the oven is one of the best things you can do. The cheese is so nice and melty! When I pulled the first piece off of the pan, it was awesome! The pizza dough was crisp. The cheese was melty. The pepperoni and bacon were crispy, too. Probably the worse thing I could say about it was that the dough could have a little more flavor. My favorite pizza, in the whole world, is D’Antonio’s out of Lodi. It is a dive pizza joint that has been around since I was a kid, but it’s what I grew up with and I love it. The dough has a distinct sweetness to it. Ask Bobby and he would tell you it is too sweet. But for me, it is the best. The pizza dough at Your Pizza Shop is nothing like D’Antonio’s. If you are O.K. with that, then you’ll probably like it a lot.
Bobby had to remind me not to over indulge in the pizza or the poppers, because we still had the chicken coming. And when it came it was piping hot! Almost too hot to eat. We had to use forks (they have plastic ones available) to even begin to eat it. I would suggest waiting a few minutes, because, who uses a fork when eating chicken? The coating was so crisp, which in my opinion is the best part about eating fried/broasted chicken. The meat was really juicy, too. Even the white meat looked juicy. Bobby and I have an agreement, I get the dark meat (thighs and legs) and he gets the white meat (breasts and wings). I find that white meat tends to be too dry for my liking. But looking at Bobby’s plate, I could tell there was plenty of juice in his piece.
Along with the chicken came the jo-jo’s. I understand that the coating for the chicken and jo-jo’s is a proprietary blend of seasoning. That’s what makes it a Your Pizza Shop as opposed to another chain/franchised shop. It is distinctly theirs.
When looking back on our date night, I’m glad Bobby convinced me to try something new. We really enjoyed talking to the owner and hearing about how everything fell into place for her and her husband to open the shop. You can tell she is enjoying the adventure and she has big plans for getting the name out there to continue to grow her customers. I think her biggest challenge is the location of the restaurant. There have been a number of restaurants in the plaza and none seem to have what it takes to be successful. I hope that this won’t be the case for her.
In addition to pizza and chicken, they also offer sandwiches. We are looking forward to trying them the next time we go.
If you like Your Pizza Shop pizza, then you won’t be disappointed because the franchise owner makes sure to remain true to the restaurant’s recipes. You’ll find the service excellent and everything nice and hot — especially if you decide to eat in the dining room!
