Brickrolled

Mix Brick Oven Pizzeria

by Trey Popp

The first thing one feels compelled to write about Mix Brick Oven Pizzeria is that its oven bears no visible trace of brick. The baking deck might qualify, but it's hard not to look at the stainless steel front and top and sides without doing a double-take at the establishment's name. Or at the restaurant's décor, where you'll find everything from drywall to wood paneling to ceramic tile — but not a single brick, not even one covered with paint. For a place situated in the bottom of a brick building, it's kind of a feat.

Maybe it's pointless to quibble over the material proportions of a restaurant oven. But a similar pattern of linguistic overreach seems to have crept into the menu, as well. You can't help but wonder: Are the "homemade meatballs" really homemade? Has the "hand-cut bacon" never actually encountered a machine blade?

On one hand, who cares? The slices at Mix are more varied and less greasy than your average. And even if their cups of La Colombe coffee are brewed a little thin, those, too, are superior to what you'd expect from most pizza joints. Plus, Mix has a full bar.

But words mean things. That spaghetti with homemade meatballs, slow-simmered in tomato sauce? Not exactly. Two pre-cooked meatballs got a dose of microwave radiation while a chunky tomato sauce spent four minutes over high heat in a sauté pan. And if it had been simmered beforehand, it must have been over a vanishingly small flame, because the diced tomatoes weren't even close to breaking down.

A chicken parm sandwich got a solid kick from a supplementary layer of Italian sausage — and the accompanying boardwalk-style fries were excellent — but unless my eyesight and taste buds are failing, that was no "seeded Italian roll."

These are unnecessary aggravations that a dose of honest menu writing could fix. But that brings me back to the oven. The point of brick construction to begin with is that you can heat it to temperatures well beyond the range of a consumer-grade home model, pock-marking pliant pizza dough with perfect blisters of crispiness. So it's a pity that Mix's baking deck was poking along below 425 degrees Fahrenheit during my visits, according to the digital thermometer taking its temperature. The somewhat flabby-crusted result isn't bad, per se, but it's a mark of underachievement. Another couple hundred degrees and Mix might achieve a pie worth seeking out.

(t_popp@citypaper.net)

Mix Brick Oven Pizzeria | 2101 Chestnut St, 215-568-3355

Hours: Sun.-Wed., 11 a.m.-10 p.m. (pizza until 11 p.m.); Thu.-Sat., 11 a.m.-11 p.m. (pizza until midnight)

Pasta, pizza, salads, sandwiches: $5.95-$18.50

Delivery available

Wheelchair accessible