Photos by Gabriel Radley
Location and Hours:1301 W. Grand Avenue
Phoenix, AZ 85007
Tuesday-Saturday 8 p.m. – 4 a.m.
Star Rating (0 – 4): ★★★★
Recommended: Pork Chile Verde, four-cheese, “Diana Ross”
In a not too distant past, a friend and I would pass by a tiny, empty storefront on the corner of Fillmore Street and Grand Avenue and dream of the day it would become a late-night restaurant, preferably a doughnut shop or a pizza joint.
A few weeks ago our dream was realized when Grand Avenue Pizza Company opened their doors in that same tiny storefront, with very special hours of operation: Tuesday to Saturday, 8 p.m. until 4 a.m.
Walking up to the restaurant, I was nervous: Could this dream be so sweet in real life?
I was quickly encouraged when two kids I recognized from around the neighborhood popped out with a Coke and a couple of slices each.
To be perfectly honest, the pizza could taste like cardboard and I would still dine here on the regular, just so I could go sit somewhere at 3:30 in the morning on a Wednesday.
On my first visit I kept it simple and got just a slice of cheese ($3.00) and a slice of pepperoni ($3.50). Both were served up reasonably fast and piping hot. Luckily, the pizza is as far from a paper product as possible; the crust is chewy and soft, but sturdy enough to support the loads of sauce, cheese and toppings.
The sauce was good but not dynamically flavorful; it did its job exceptionally well though. It kept the cheese attached to the pizza. In all my visits, there was never a disgruntled bite caused by the previous bite pulling off most of the cheese. This pizza eats clean.
The cheese was really the star. It tasted smooth and decadent without being a total grease trap.
The beauty of these slices is the way the ingredients combine to create a near-perfect cheap slice. It’s like a slice you might buy from a vendor in New York City, but made better because it isn’t oozing grease or being served off a stand with obvious health-code violations.
In addition to the cheese and pepperoni, every night brings its own special pie, be it four-cheese, the “Diana Ross,” or the Pork Chile Verde, which I was lucky enough to get a slice of.
Served with jalapenos and a lemon wedge, the pork pizza was astoundingly good: just the right amount of spicy and all the right flavors. While the regular pizzas are good, it appears that the specialty pies are really where the finer points of the chef’s skill set shine through.
If you are looking for more than pizza though, this isn’t the place. The menu is simple: pizzas, toppings and non-alcoholic beverages. No bread sticks, no mozz sticks, no chicken wings. This place is all about the pie.
To some this could seem limiting, but for chef Carson Wheeler and his crew, I think it fits perfectly with the vibe of the whole place. Simple, but immaculate.
The inside of the shop is a beautiful and extremely detailed space. The room comfortably holds nine stools and six of them face out the big front windows, providing an excellent place to watch the world go by, especially at night.
A mural that screams Phoenix adorns the left wall, while red-and-white checkered tablecloths on the counter remind you that you are in a true pizza joint.
The whole design of the place, from the food to the walls, is very self-aware that this restaurant is filling a gap in the downtown Phoenix scene.
Phoenix may have some world-class pizza, but pizzerias like Pizzeria Bianco and Cibo — as delicious as they are — are not built for the everyman: they are dining experiences that stand on their own.
Grand Avenue Pizza Company brings pizza back to the people who need it most. The solo diners, the people who desperately need something to soak up a night of partying, the college student strung out on caffeine who needs to finish their paper before dawn. The list goes on and on, but the conclusion is the same.
A pizza joint that is open and affordable until four in the morning is a public service to us all.
Contact the reporter at gabriel.radley@asu.edu
