Wait for it

In the last three years, I’ve written a lot of words about pizza—pizzas from diners, pizzas at coffee shops, pizzas in bars, pizza from food trucks, and pies from traditional pizzerias. The best always start with a cherished family recipe or two, and Bru-Go’s Pizza Co. is just such a place.

The shop is cozy, with indoor seating for perhaps 30 and more seating on the patio. The decor is fairly modern, with rough-hewn rock textures and a series of paintings color-coordinated with the light fixtures. Classic rock house music was competing with hip-hop jams coming from the kitchen, a distraction from the otherwise pleasant atmosphere. Halfway through our visit someone realized this was a mashup made in hell and sacrificed the sounds of the ’70s for the chef’s favorite jams.

Notified that chicken wings ($11.95 for 12) take a while, my wife put in an order right after being seated. I arrived about 20 minutes later—perused the menu for another 10—and put in an order for a set of six-inch personal pizzas ($11.95 each) so we could sample a few of the house specialties. The wings showed up 10 minutes later.

The wings were definitely baked, which at least partly explains the 40-minute wait. Deep-fried wings require a third of the time and—I believe—are superior in texture and flavor, but I will say these were about as good as baked wings are ever going to be. They were cooked through and not overly mushy or rubbery. Definitely not a standard “Buffalo” sauce, this ample bath of spiciness had hints of garlic and oregano mixed in with a nice amount of salt and was finished with the perfect amount of kick.

Thirty minutes post-wings it was pizza time. The Big Combo was a classic mix of pepperoni, Chicago-style Italian sausage, red onion, bell pepper, mushroom, black olive, mozzarella and roasted red sauce. I’m not sure what was roasted, but the sauce was every bit as tasty as the wing sauce. The crust was thick but not too bready, with a nicely crisped foundation—perfect for holding up all of those ingredients.

Joe’s Sicilian Meatball Pizza featured the same nice crust, with that great red sauce, mozzarella, red onion, bell pepper and mushroom. The meatballs are a recipe of Joe’s Sicilian grandmother. Grandma apparently knew her way around a meatball. They had nice flavor and texture, neither tough nor too squishy.

The name alone drew me into ordering the Finding Nemo Scampi Pizza, with sundried tomato, artichoke heart, roasted garlic, asiago and mozzarella cheeses, creamy garlic white sauce, and itty-bitty garlic butter sauteed shrimp, all atop a crispy thin crust. The tomato was candy sweet, but the combination with the savory flavors worked surprisingly well. Shrimpy goodness.

The Cefalu pizza—named for a coastal town in Sicily—is from yet another family recipe. Olive oil and Parmesan cheese are worked into dough that is then rolled quite thin. It’s with a sparse amount of onion, tomato, garlic, pesto and sauteed bits of mushroom. Despite the lack of much on top, it’s definitely worth repeating.

There are salads and sandwiches and other stuff on the menu, too, and I’m definitely planning a return visit to try their rotolo baked sandwiches. I’ll just know to bring a book next time—and perhaps some headphones.