By Todd Barron @ FoodieCuisine.com
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Zaza's Pizza - Picture by Shannon Sturgis
My son wanted to have a brick-oven pizza at Zaza’s in the Heights so I happily obliged. We have been to Zaza’s a few times in the past and it is worth revisiting. I had never approached the place from a critics standpoint and looked forward to the experience.
I took my two boys with me at Noon on Sunday for pizza and salad. Zaza’s is a very casual pizza place located behind what used to be the Heights Theater. It is owned and operated by two owners, Scott McGehee and John Beachboard. They happen to be the originators of Boulevard Bread Company and Zaza’s is the latest creation. I recently read that they are going national with the store and have made business arrangements to form a chain out of it. Very impressive.
They have an upstairs, downstairs, and a outside eating area. There aren’t many tables, and they are almost always full, but people move in an out quickly. You order your food by going through a marked line that is close to the entrance. You can request any of the salads, pizzas, or subs from the menu board or ask to have one made with the exact toppings you want. This is where you can go crazy as there are many items to be had on a pizza, salad, or sub (sandwich.) The salads are huge and my oldest son had the chicken Caesar salad. His salad had large chunks of chicken in it with fresh shaved Parmesan cheese mixed in. The salads are made while you order them and my son was able to take it with him to our table.
I ordered their standard pepperoni pizza for my youngest son and the house-made Italian sausage pizza for myself. I had sun-dried tomatoes and feta added to my pizza to enhance the flavor a bit. The pizzas are all cooked in their large brick oven and are done within just a few minutes. They are very thin, but not crispy. It’s hard to describe but if you have ever had brick oven pizza you will instantly recognize the food.
You pay after you place your order and proceed to the drink area to fill up your sodas, water, or tea. You also pick up your plates, napkins, and utensils in the drink area. They have a gelato counter for when you want to order dessert. Gelato is more akin to a sorbet than ice-cream and has a light flavor. I haven’t had the gelato at Zaza’s; therefore, I can’t comment on how good (or bad) it is. Maybe next time. 🙂
We sat upstairs and waited for our food to come out. I watched the patrons down below and also paid attention to the pizza makers putting the food together. As I watched them make the pizzas I did notice that they use very little sauce and slices of cheese. They also only cover about half of the pizza with toppings. I used to work at a pizza restaurant and this is a bit puzzling as I’m used to pizza toppings that cover everything. You would think that at around $11 a pizza they could afford more toppings.
There are about seven tables upstairs and a couple of televisions in view to watch. There is also a setup of Guitar Hero on one wall to keep kids entertained. The tables are casual and are accompanied by plastic chairs. We did have to ask them to turn the air conditioner off as it gets very cold upstairs. I’m guessing that the kitchen staff are plenty warm and keep it turned down since this is the second time in a row I’ve had to ask for the place to be warmer. They complied and within about fifteen minutes our food was delivered to our table.
I first tried the pepperoni pizza which is made with fresh mozzarella, basil, large pieces of pepperoni, and large slivers of sliced Parmesan cheese. The tomato sauce had a very nice flavor to it and I could taste the basil clearly. The dough is chewy but not too much so. The pepperoni tasted good and I loved the Parmesan cheese shavings. The pizza was a little on the salty side and after it cooled down it felt greasy. You can expect a lighter tasting pizza from Zaza’s given the style (brick oven) and lack of toppings. Due to the lack of toppings I had to make an effort to obtain a slice with pepperoni or Parmesan on it. Overall the ingredients tasted very fresh and the pizza was far and above better than what I would expect from a chain store.
Next up I had the Italian Sausage pizza. It had sun-dried tomatoes and feta added to it as I mentioned earlier. The Italian Sausage pizza comes with arugula, sliced Parmesan cheese, red sauce, green bell peppers, and a few other cheeses. It had a great taste to it and I really enjoyed it. The only thing I would change is to add more ingredients. On more than one slice I had to move toppings around to have one of everything.
Overall, they have good fresh brick oven pizza and huge salads. Their pizza could use more toppings and they need to keep the salt in check. Chains like Pizza Hut pale in comparison to the quality of Zaza’s and that is something they should be proud of. I know I’ll be going back.
5600 Kavanaugh Blvd.
Little Rock, Arkansas
10:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday
10:30 a.m.-10:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday
Noon-7 p.m Sunday
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