Get a round

There’s nothing better than watching a pizza be made by hand, fired in a brick oven and served up with crust still crackling from the heat. With a menu touting imported Italian tomatoes, cold cuts and cheeses—plus sauces, crusts and breads made in-house—Flat Earth Pizza clearly intends to provide that classic pizzeria experience, with a few modern touches.

For appetizers, we ordered a plate of smoked beef and pork meatballs ($10.99), served with marinara sauce, mozzarella, and toasted crostini on the side, and smoked pork ribs with whiskey barbecue sauce ($17.99, half rack). The meatballs had near-perfect texture. They were easily cut with a fork but firm enough to not fall apart. The sauce was nice and chunky, with just enough melted cheese. The toast rounds were just shy of toothbreaker territory, so we focused on the tasty meatballs.

Although I’m a sucker for hot wings with pizza, I’m equally drawn to the promise of good ribs. These had a basic dry rub and a fair amount of smoke, served with a very good sauce on the side. The meat was tender and generally enjoyable, although a bit of effort was required to chew it off the bone. Fans of the “slides right off” variety may be a little disappointed, but the flavors were worth the effort.

Moving on to pizza, the menu starts with “Old World” and “New York” styles, i.e., olive oil and basil margherita, and East Coast red sauce with mozzarella. There’s a list of about 25 toppings to punch up your pie—with both classic and less conventional options. Broccoli rabe slice, anyone?

We chose a few 12-inch pies from the specialty menu, starting with “From Russia with Love” ($17.99). Of primary note was the crust, which was very thin and crispy, with a toasty flavor and good chew at the edges. In fact, I could barely detect the pizza’s tomato cream vodka sauce alongside the flavors of the crust, mozzarella, seasoned mushrooms, green peas and prosciutto. Everything worked well, but I don’t know that the peas were really necessary. At least they added some nutrients and fiber.

Next, we tried “The Great Bambino,” a combo pizza ($18.99) topped with plum tomato sauce, mozzarella, pepperoni, onion, seasoned mushroom, smoked sausage, black olive and fire-roasted bell pepper. The thin crust held up well under the load, likely aided by another example of very light sauce. The overall effect was good—and considerably less greasy than similar combos—but I’d really like to taste a little more tomato and herb flavor with the garlic and smoke. To be clear, this was a good pizza, but with just a tweak, it could be great. The use of thin-sliced link sausage in lieu of ground loose meat was a good call. The snap from the casing adds a nice bit of texture.

The last pizza we tried was “The Mediterranean” ($18.99). It featured pumpkin seed basil pesto sauce, mozzarella, feta, smoked chicken, spinach, artichoke heart, tomato, black olive, red onion and garlic. I don’t know that I really noticed the ground seeds, but this was the one pie where I could really taste the sauce. It was definitely my favorite out of the three. The chicken was fantastic, tender and moist, with a good amount of wood smoke and seasoning. It was perfect counterpart to the herbs and veg.