soltro79 wrote:$22 for a 14" pizza seems a little pricey, doesn't it? I realize this is "the best pizza you'll ever have in your life omg!!1!" but, still...

the price does seem to be steadily increasing. I remember when their top of the line pizza was $19ish. Now that's $21ish for the base cheese, I think.

Rude hosts and exorbitant prices...yet people still line up. I guess that says a lot about the quality of the food.

stevez wrote:Rude hosts and exorbitant prices...yet people still line up. I guess that says a lot about the quality of the food.

Only for so long though and hopefully they will have their nest egg by then.

After a certain amount of time the 'one timers to see how great it really is' (like me) should taper off.

Of course I might be wrong...

I am quite sure they aren't getting rich selling $24 pizzas.

If paying an extra $2 is an issue, there are plenty of places that will sell you a pizza for under $10.

stevez wrote:Rude hosts and exorbitant prices...yet people still line up. I guess that says a lot about the quality of the food.

Exactly. Frankly, I'd be happier if they were a little more expensive and the lines a little shorter. It would be nice to be able to get a pizza whenever I wanted.

Darren72 wrote:I am quite sure they aren't getting rich selling $24 pizzas.

If paying an extra $2 is an issue, there are plenty of places that will sell you a pizza for under $10.

stevez wrote:Rude hosts and exorbitant prices...yet people still line up. I guess that says a lot about the quality of the food.

Exactly. Frankly, I'd be happier if they were a little more expensive and the lines a little shorter. It would be nice to be able to get a pizza whenever I wanted.

I miss those days. When no one knew about GL and I just walked into an empty (or 2-3 person) place any evening. :sigh:

stevez wrote:Rude hosts and exorbitant prices...yet people still line up. I guess that says a lot about the quality of the food.

They weren't rude at all when I was there. I was all ready for a Soup Nazi experience and but for the reports here and in the media I never would have known. I didn't get a hint of it for myself nor did I witness anything untoward to any of the other guests dining or carrying out while we were there.

They've been very pleasant each time I've been there. One time there was an elderly couple in front of us who were looking for Italian food. They had read about Great Lake in a magazine apparently. The person at the front patiently explained that they only serve pizza. The couple simply didn't get that they were a pizza only restaurant and kept asking "all that bread is too filling, do you have anything lighter?". This exchange easily took over 5 minutes. Eventually the Great Lake employee walked the couple all the way to Anteprima so they wouldn't get lost. I was really impressed by their patience and politeness through the whole exchange.

The menu as of today:



Today's dinner was a farmers market salad with herb buttermilk dressing, a #1 with salami, and a #2. I'm not a big zucchini fan, but my wife suggested that I'd enjoy just about anything on that crust, and sure enough, I threw back two slices with gusto.

All owners & staff were friendly & in good spirits, table turnover was pretty quick (40-50-minute wait at 5:30pm), and everything we ordered was excellent.

Had a couple of fantastic cocktails at In Fine Spirits before dinner, and shared a couple of scoops of gelato and an infamous (and ridiculously good) cannolo from Pasticceria Natalina for dessert.

I really need to get up to Andersonville more often.

5 pm does seem to be the new opening time. As a new/useful data point, we called at 5:09 last evening (admittedly Friday might not be the ideal day) and were told that the pizzas would not be ready until 6:40 pm. Having had to wait a while once before, we were a bit concerned when we showed up at 6:40. However, as we were paying, Nick said that they'd need only a minute or two more in the oven. The restaurant itself was not packed but take-out seems to be the order of the day. Obviously that kind of wait (and the lack of packed-ness at the tables) suggests that more and more people are, in fact, picking it up to go. The two young women in line before me wanted to order two pizzas to go. Nick said they wouldn't be ready until 9 pm. The girls placed the order with nary a moment's hesitation. (We were amused to notice, as we arrived, a group of four was taking turns posing for pictures with their pizza boxes in front of the place.)

The opening time is 4:30 unless they've changed it since Wednesday.

Ah. I stand corrected; I did think that that seemed to be an awful lot of phone orders in 9 minutes. Thanks for the correction.

We went again today. This time, I get it. Wow! We ordered two pizzas. It was way too much food and the zucchini pizza came first. DH asked them to box the other pizza to go. Grrrr, I had intended to eat from both pizzas fresh from the oven.

This was the other pizza:




We didn't try it until we got home. Luckily, because of the heat, it wasn't hot but it wasn't cold. It was one of the best things I've tasted in a very long time. This pizza has corn, fresh cream, and fresh garlic. I've never had corn on a pizza before. It doesn't even sound particularly appealing to me, but this was fantastic. I think I'm going back next week for a repeat of this pizza.



FWIW- There were no Sicilian slices while we were there today.

Here's a link if you want to see a bigger image.

They charge you a dollar if you leave a beer bottle?

pairs4life wrote: I've never had corn on a pizza before. It doesn't even sound particularly appealing to me, but this was fantastic.

Corn is a common pizza topping in Japan. Then again, so is squid.

gastro gnome wrote:

pairs4life wrote: I've never had corn on a pizza before. It doesn't even sound particularly appealing to me, but this was fantastic.

Corn is a common pizza topping in Japan.

The other day a friend was describing a Mexican restaurant she visited near the Gaztro-Wagon shop. I'm pretty sure the place she was talking about was Dona Chio. I asked her if she had had a huarache with huitlacoche. Thinking she'd probably go back and try it with a more vague description, I said it was like "pizza with corn."

happy_stomach wrote:

gastro gnome wrote:

pairs4life wrote: I've never had corn on a pizza before. It doesn't even sound particularly appealing to me, but this was fantastic.

Corn is a common pizza topping in Japan.

The other day a friend was describing a Mexican restaurant she visited near the Gaztro-Wagon shop. I'm pretty sure the place she was talking about was Dona Chio. I asked her if she had had a huarache with huitlacoche. Thinking she'd probably go back and try it with a more vague description, I said it was like "pizza with corn."

to be fair, there's no way most people would know what that is, and it's kinda ridiculous to ask. I speak some Spanish (4 years) and I wouldn't know.

I speak no spanish except menu spanish, and I know what it means

Chitown B wrote:to be fair, there's no way most people would know what that is, and it's kinda ridiculous to ask. I speak some Spanish (4 years) and I wouldn't know.

I would imagine this friend used a menu to order. Why would it be ridiculous to ask what the person picked from the menu?

Darren72 wrote:

Chitown B wrote:to be fair, there's no way most people would know what that is, and it's kinda ridiculous to ask. I speak some Spanish (4 years) and I wouldn't know.

I would imagine this friend used a menu to order. Why would it be ridiculous to ask what the person picked from the menu?

because if you don't know what it means in the first place, and it's all in spanish, a lot of it will probably run together and you might not be able to remember anyway. Heck, sometimes I can't even remember what I ordered at Great Lake, and it's in English!

Chitown B wrote:

Darren72 wrote:

Chitown B wrote:to be fair, there's no way most people would know what that is, and it's kinda ridiculous to ask. I speak some Spanish (4 years) and I wouldn't know.

I would imagine this friend used a menu to order. Why would it be ridiculous to ask what the person picked from the menu?

because if you don't know what it means in the first place, and it's all in spanish, a lot of it will probably run together and you might not be able to remember anyway. Heck, sometimes I can't even remember what I ordered at Great Lake, and it's in English!

I would say there's a big difference between your lack of memory for what you ordered, and saying it is ridiculous to even ask someone else what they ordered.

Chitown B wrote:

happy_stomach wrote:The other day a friend was describing a Mexican restaurant she visited near the Gaztro-Wagon shop. I'm pretty sure the place she was talking about was Dona Chio. I asked her if she had had a huarache with huitlacoche. Thinking she'd probably go back and try it with a more vague description, I said it was like "pizza with corn."

to be fair, there's no way most people would know what that is, and it's kinda ridiculous to ask. I speak some Spanish (4 years) and I wouldn't know.

gleam wrote:I speak no spanish except menu spanish, and I know what it means

I actually don't know my friend's Spanish proficiency, but she's lived in several South American countries. And even if she's never studied Spanish or doesn't have any menu Spanish (unlikely since she's fairly food obsessed), she has excellent textual recall and remembers names (and particularly food terms) easily.

Mmmm...corn smut in a sandal.

gastro gnome wrote:

pairs4life wrote: I've never had corn on a pizza before. It doesn't even sound particularly appealing to me, but this was fantastic.

Corn is a common pizza topping in Japan. Then again, so is squid.

Just got back from a couple of weeks in Europe and corn popped up everywhere, including on pizzas.

Can one get a pizza with only the ingredients that they want, or do they just serve several kinds of pizzas daily and only those kinds are available?

BTB wrote:Can one get a pizza with only the ingredients that they want, or do they just serve several kinds of pizzas daily and only those kinds are available?

They have a few kinds of pizza daily (usually the same few options will be available for at least a few days, maybe longer), and each option will have some optional add-ons (salami, peperoni, etc.) listed underneath. I don't believe you can order off-menu, presumably because many of their ingredients come from farmers markets, meaning the menu is shaped by what they have on hand.

BTB wrote:Can one get a pizza with only the ingredients that they want, or do they just serve several kinds of pizzas daily and only those kinds are available?

BTB- I don't know when you are going but your question prompted us to have dinner there last night.

We had the #1 with mushrooms and the #3 sweet peppers and cream.

We also had the heirloom tomato salad. It had oil and grated cheese. It was delicious. I'm reproducing it now to have with the leftovers.

Whoops! I digress.

Great Lake Pizza is taking a breather. They will close after service on Saturday evening (September 18th) and if my memory is correct they will re-open on October 5.

wow that's a long break. I haven't been by to frequent Lydia's place for awhile, since we moved it's harder to just drop by.

So - to those in the know:

On a given day (Saturday for instance) what time does Great Lake open?
If one were to call the day before, can a pizza be ordered for the following day at opening time?

Try calling them. You'll get the definitive answer and can share it with the rest of us. (I think they are open at noon on Saturdays and they don't let you order a day early, but I could be wrong.)

Darren72 wrote:Try calling them. You'll get the definitive answer and can share it with the rest of us. (I think they are open at noon on Saturdays and they don't let you order a day early, but I could be wrong.)

Try answering questions in a helpful manner, and when you actually have some semblance of legitimate information - then you can share it with the rest of us.