Brick Oven Brew Pub
 Akron, Ohio        Date of Visit  02/24/17            https://www.thebrickovenbrewpub.com

Why do so many funerals seem to happen at the same time? So many sad people. After calling hours we have some time to grab some nourishment prior to our next stop and Yelp sends us to The Brick Oven Brew Pub. House made beers don’t seem all that appropriate this early in the day and with what’s on the docket, so we focused more on the oven than the pub. There is a very nice young man waiting on the tables, which were empty when we arrived and full when we left. Nice young man, a little confused, certainly not entirely sure what he was doing, but he made up for a bunch of that with personality and effort. He could work much less hard and really shine.
 

We started with their Caprese Salad consisting of fresh mozzarella, roma tomatoes and fresh basil topped with their house made balsamic vinaigrette. Gotta say, not my favorite balsamic sauce (I like ‘em bitey and less restrained) but overall a really well balanced salad. Big pile of sweet fragrant basil, yielding checkers of cheese with just enough salt to season the ripe and meaty tomatoes, add sweet acid and there’s the reason the salad has a name.
 

We were disappointed they were out of the sauce for their Thai Peanut Chicken Pizza, house made spicy Thai peanut sauce, chicken, red bell pepper, carrot, and green onion, topped with a mild brick cheese and sprinkled with fresh cilantro. We tried three small pies, luckily it was cold enough all the left overs could live in the trunk, it may have also been lucky they didn’t have the peanut sauce…just wish it was because it led us to something wonderful instead of it limiting the chicken we ordered.
 

Crust Comes With Plenty Of Texture
 

And Screamingly Blistered Tops
 

For me, the best option was the Sicilian, easily the most classic pie we ordered.

House made pepperoni, sopressata, and Italian sausage, hard salami, onions and garlic with spicy house made tomato sauce all topped with a blend of mozzarella and parmesan. Their crust is chewy and takes a nice bit of char from the oven. They make a lot in house, here it really worked. The meats did what they do and the kick in the gravy is unapologetic, and delicious. This ain’t coming to your door in a box, not from anywhere around here. Neither are the other two pizzas but they were less successful.
 

The Goat Cheese & Roasted Pepper special was so, so, close; how can you go wrong with roasted bell peppers and garlic with mixed herbs, olive oil and wonderful tangy goat cheese. It was all about balance. There were way too many peppers for Steph and just too many for me. The chevre had blistered down into a soft ooze but the flavor was nearly all pepper. I’m not one to complain of too much topping on a pizza, this was too much for me.
 

Since there was no Thai pizza we went with the Chicken Verde, grilled chicken, roasted poblano peppers, grilled onions, diced roma tomatoes, salsa verde (yes, house made) on a corn & green chile dough all topped with mild cheddar cheese fresh cilantro and sour cream. Loved almost all of it. Almost enough on it, I didn’t notice…but Steph picked a cube of chicken off a slice and chewed it alone. That was not a happy face. Not sure if there was purposeful seasoning of some kind or a problem in storage but the chicken had a distinct sourness which, once noticed, could not be ignored. The tiny space was packed when we left. They do have a lot of promise and were better than I expected. It seems some agree, and it’s not just the beer that was on nearly every table.