OK, so it was my birthday the other day and the kids wanted to “take me out to dinner,” which in 11-year-old parlance means they want to pick a place for my birthday dinner that they know well, where they will like the food and where they will have a good time. Dad can pay. Luckily enough, they wanted to go to Pepperoni’s.
A small, 12-inch Pepperoni’s Special ($16.49) at Pepperoni's.
I used to go to Pepperoni’s in Duluth, Ga., quite often before moving some 15 miles away. It’s a singular, stand-alone kind of place that doesn’t even have a sniff of chain or corporate sameness. There is nothing wrong with going to a chain pizza place (I even worked at one in high school), but there is something about individuality that you just can’t beat. You can tell Pepperoni’s is a one-of-a-kind place immediately when walking through the door.
First off, you are hit with a great smell of basil and bread (the pizza crusts, really). If you look to your right, you’ll see a glass counter with big tubs of ice cream. If you look left, you see the dining room, with the walls covered with sports posters and photos. Then you see the tables, which are really shadow boxes with Plexiglas tops covering various themes: Barbies, NASCAR, Toy Story, the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech, the local high school, etc. No matter where you sit, and no matter how many times you look at these little tableaus, you’ll always spot something you hadn’t seen before.
A large, 16-piece pie worked out perfectly for four kids.
So, knowing pretty much what to expect, everyone was happy with the choice. It was a small party: me, my two kids, Johanna and her two kids. Luckily, the kids fell into helpful and even camps. Half wanted plain cheese pizza, while the other half wanted pepperoni. A large, 16-inch pie with 12 slices ($17.54)—six cheese and six with pepperoni—worked out to be even-Steven, and there was no reason to fight over the pizza (but with a 12-year-old, two 11-year-olds and an 8-year-old, two boys and two girls, there is always something to fight over). For the adults, I had a hankering for a pizza with everything, and ordered a small, 12-inch Pepperoni’s Special ($16.49).
When the pizzas were served, the noise level at our table dropped noticeably, as mouths stopped talking (loudly) and instead started chewing. Based on the way the kids devoured their pie, they liked it, and our pizza was very good, too.
Pepperoni’s does this thing with the pizza crust, coating the outside edge of the dough with a kind of magical basil-and-garlic happiness potion that, when it bakes, adds a mouth-watering something-something that makes it almost impossible to resist. Kids who never in their lives have eaten an entire piece of pizza finish Pepperoni’s slices down to the crumbs.
 The interior at Pepperoni's. |
 The University of Georgia table at Pepperoni's. |
The crust under the pizza is thin, and remains a little crispy instead of sagging like a New York-style pizza. The Pepperoni’s Special isn’t an actual “the works” pizza, though, limiting the toppings to pepperoni (of course), Italian sausage slices, mushrooms, black olives, green peppers and onions. The combination is enough to cover the pie, but not enough that some doesn’t get cooked through, earning it an A-1 rating.
Pepperoni’s
Duluth Station Shopping Center
2750 Buford Hwy.
Duluth, Ga. 30097
770.2320224
Post by and photos credited to Gregory Watkins.