Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Another Local Pizza Parlor!

Our search continues in our quest for a really top notch thin crust pizza here in East Tennessee.  There are a plethora of mom and pop pizza parlors as well as larger chain operations but we haven’t found any pizzas that could compare to those we’ve sampled in Chicago, south Florida or upper New York State. 

Note: We don’t include St. Louis pizzas in our comparative top pizza listing because, although they’re very good, they use provolone cheese instead of mozzarella.  It’s a totally different taste.  

So on to our next pizza stop in East Tennessee…


We have lived here in East Tennessee for almost 6 years now and we’ve passed Little Joe’s Pizza on US Hwy 11/Kingston Pike countless times.  So, one might ask why we hadn’t stopped here before… Our primary but poor excuse was that we’d heard mixed reviews about the pizzas here and we just kept putting it off. Even our realtor back in 2009, told us she really liked Little Joe's Pizza but for some reason, we hadn't tried it till now.


Laurie wasn’t affected by the interior of the Little Joe's, saying that it was OK…but I felt like I was in a cave…dark with low ceilings, etc.  It didn’t help any that it was cloudy and rainy outside but the windows do limit the light and to me that made the place feel small and confined.

The dining area was clean and the waitress was very accommodating and helpful.  This restaurant has a lot of supporters which is supported by the fact that it’s been in business since 1974…that’s 41 years!  In the restaurant business, that longevity is hard to duplicate…


One very nice touch is the fact that these breadsticks and a nice spaghetti sauce are automatically brought out to your table.  We both really enjoyed the breadsticks and the ‘dipping’ sauce.  Laurie ordered a Shiner Bock and I ordered my usual Miller Lite to accompany our meal. ($3.50 each)


We ordered the 15” thin crust pizza with sausage, bacon and pepperoni. ($17.75) They sure don’t scrimp on the ingredients…


Laurie thought that this was one of the best pizzas that we’ve had in East Tennessee…hands down!  We couldn't finish it so she had a nice leftover lunch to look forward to.  

I had two issues, both of which are personal preference related.  Number one was that the crust was more like a cracker crust than it was like a traditional pizza crust.  It did hold up well to the ingredients and the sauce, but it tasted like a saltine cracker to me.  The second issue was that the bacon overpowered the other ingredients… This was definitely on us since we ordered it this way.

We will return to Little Joe’s Pizza.  It was better than most in East Tennessee and we agreed that the next time we should just order our ‘standard’ Italian sausage and pepperoni pizza for a fair taste test. But again,Laurie really loved this pizza! She even texted her sister in St. Louis & sent her photos of our meal!

Little Joe’s Pizza is located at 13100 Kingston Pike in Farragut Tennessee.  It’s right at the Knox – Loudon County line.  Phone: 865-966-5006.  I couldn’t locate a website but Little Joe’s is on Facebook.  To view the menu, go to https://www.facebook.com/notes/267153534726/.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!


Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

3 comments:

  1. Glad you tried Little Joe's. Before the chains, it and Big Ed's in Oak Ridge (it was better back when Ed ran it) were the places to go for the best pizza. Glad to hear it's still good.

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  2. Well, you know what I will say---no pizza anywhere, compares to Chicago pizza!!! Your pizza looks good, but the place sounds too claustrophobic for me. Have a great weekend, my friend!

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  3. This pizza look delicious David!!
    We ate pizza today with my daugther! aw she loves pizza and my son too.
    This look really good, I love with all this cheese!!
    xo

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