Dewey's Pizza

Popular Cincinnati chain doesn’t live up to hype

Dewey's Pizza, the newest entry to Grandview’s already crowded pizza scene, was bustling with excitement. The bulging building couldn’t hold all of the eager customers, and so people leaked out the doors, awaiting their long anticipated takeout or table. The wait, I was told, would be twenty-five to thirty minutes. Or maybe less, I was reassured. A glass window showcased the pizza makers, who were swiftly grabbing the premeasured and preformed dough to spin them in the air, much to the delight of the many young children that watched. The children would then bang on the windows, either trying to throw the workers off their game, or gain their attention. They were unsuccessful on both parts, as the unfazed pizza makers twirled the dough behind their backs in ostentatious show. I decided to stick it out, to see if the stroller-toting Grandview mothers were onto something. A fellow customer in the restaurant reassured me as I considered leaving, “this is the best pizza in Columbus, without a doubt…Rubino’s, no way, this is much better…Figlio? I go for their pasta, but this pizza is better.”

Besides the Dewey’s Original (cheese and tomato sauce) and the X-Pepperoni (extra pepperoni), Dewey’s specialty pizza menu boasts some very odd options. Many of them load on the toppings to an almost ridiculous point (take the Ryan’s Inferno, which sports olive oil, light mozzarella cheese, buffalo chicken, gorgonzola cheese, red onion with ranch dressing and celery after the bake). Kudos to you if you can taste the olive oil after that flavor onslaught. Prices range from pricey ($9 for the basic 11’’ cheese), to the pricier ($20 for the 17’’ Wild Mushroom)

Not exactly in the mood for a buffalo chicken gorgonzola ranch pizza, I sampled the Killer Veggie (tomato sauce, mozzarella, mushrooms, onions, black olives, green peppers, with fresh tomatoes and parsley after the bake), and got a half mixed mushroom white pizza, half plain cheese red pizza. Dewey’s is very accommodating in doing half pizzas, but don’t expect them to be exactly half pizzas. The mushrooms were distributed across Also, don’t be suckered in for their Wild Mushroom when you can do a Create Your Own Pizza with the same ingredients for less. Another curious piece of the menu is the omission of pricing for their drinks ($1.99 for all the curious out there, a price that I’m sure most in the restaurant would be willing to pay).

The house salad featured nice mixed greens, but fell into the all too familiar problem of making the dressing too sweet. It was supposedly a balsamic vinagrette, but when the salad already has dried cranberries on it, a dressing shouldn't even verge close to being sweet. The mixed mushroom half pizza looked enticing, covered in four or five different kinds of mushroom. The first bite was bursting with flavor. With the flavor of salt and garlic, to be more specific. I remembered watching the pizza maker and seeing him grab a handful of chopped white something, and put the pieces together. On their white pizzas, Dewey’s uses way too much garlic. Perhaps it would be a little harder to notice on one of their topping-packed pizzas, but on my mixed mushroom it was painfully clear. The crust, which the reassuring man at the beginning of my review said was the best he’s ever had, bar none, was nothing special. The bottom was soft until about a bite before the crust, where it got lightly crunchy (think ritz cracker crunchiness). But the crust felt almost artificial, like a pizza crust lite. I would’ve liked to have seen the pizza stay in a few minutes longer, where the whole pizza could have developed a crispness about it and the crust a thorough crispness. The cheese pizza was sufficient, but absolutely nothing I haven’t seen before. Ingredients felt standard, as did most anything in this restaurant (except the prices). The killer veggie fared better, with the vegetables toning down a little of the salt, and providing a better freshness and flavor to the pizza. But Dewey’s was largely a forgettable experience, with decent offerings at very questionable prices. I thought of all the Grandview pizzerias that are on par with or better than Dewey's- Panzera's, Cowtown, whatever the people from BonoToGo come up with, Figlio, etc. We can only hope that the addition of Dewey's doesn't lead to their demise.

After leaving the jam-packed Dewey’s, I was almost tempted to sing a song. “Do They Know There’s Other Pizza in Grandview?” isn’t a well-known tune, but one that would certainly enlighten those suburban mothers and twenty-somethings who thought Dewey’s was the best thing they had ever seen. That is, if they could even hear it over the din the restaurant produces, between the blasted music and the kids/adults screaming. Something tells me that Dewey’s will not only survive, but will succeed with the formula it has created. Why its successful formula doesn’t include tasty pizzas at reasonable prices is beyond me, however…