Friday Night Slice?

I know, I know...more like Friday Night Slackers.

This week's pizza review takes us a little north of our normal sphere of pizza influence: Louisville, Kentucky. Louisville is home to the famous Kentucky Derby, the Louisville Slugger baseball bat factory, the Bluegrass Balloon Festival, the world's largest Beatles festival, the original Lebowski fest, the former recipient of my paychecks: ear X-tacy, and the questionably safe Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom.

Louisville offers a wealth of local restaurants across every ethnicity and style. The streets are lined with unique bars, restaurants, bakeries, delis, and bistros in lieu of Logan's, Applebee's, Ruby Tuesday's and Chili's. And while Louisville also houses the world headquarters of Papa John's and Pizza Hut, there are an incredible number of local pizza parlors. After asking around and consulting Where The Locals Eat and the local alt-weekly, we decided to go with the 2009 people's choice winner.

Boom Bozz Famous Gourmet Pizza



In 1989, Tony Palombino opened Boom Bozz Pizza in Louisville. What began as a modest little parlor has evolved into a dominant force in the city with four packed locations where various local and international awards line the walls.

Boom Bozz, of course, does it all from scratch with a very thin and tangy tomato sauce base coated in 100% mozzarella cheese. The dense cheese has little pull away and gets a bit greasy, but boy is it tasty. The pepperoni surprises with its flavor and spice, building upon itself with a little heat as well. The crust is a little disappointing for a place that has everyone falling at its feet - it's a basic hand-tossed crust that's cooked well but has little to no flavor.



While I do it pepperoni-and-cheese-only-style for these reviews, it's clear that Boom Bozz brushes its shoulders off with its specialty pizzas. The D'Sienna (International Gourmet Pizza Winner) has a tomato cream sauce, mozzarella, asiago and romano cheeses along with fresh chopped spinach. The Pollotate (2008 International Pizza of the Year) has marinated grilled chicken with roasted potatoes and onions on a garlic olive oil crust with asiago and mozzarella. Boom Bozz offers starters (the fried ravioli is excellent), salads and sandwiches as well along with over 30 microbrews (the Magic hat has more than just a hint of apricot) from its new "Ice Bar" at the Bardstown Road location.

For the exotic specialty pizzas, I'll give it to you Boom Bozz...but c'mon Louisville, the hand-tossed pepperoni pizza just barely snuck above average.


Boom Bozz Famous Gourmet Pizza
Louisville: Springhurst, Clifton, the Highlands and J Town
dining in, delivery, carry out and catering

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Cold Pizza:
Friday Night Slice, Part 1: MAFIAoZA's and Joey's House of Pizza
Friday Night Slice, Part 2: Pizza Perfect and Pizza Perfect Kebobs
Friday Night Slice, Part 3: Rudino's Pizza and Grinders
Friday Night Slice, Part 4: Chicago Style Italian Beef
Friday Night Slice, Part 5: Pie In The Sky
Friday Night Slice, Part 6: Castrillo's Pizza
Friday Night Slice, Part 7: California Pizza Kitchen
Friday Night Slice, Part 8: Ahart's Pizza Garden (Murfreesboro)
Friday Night Slice, Part 9: New York Pizza Depot (Clarksville)
Friday Night Slice, Part 10: Matteo's Pizzeria
Friday Night Slice, Part 11: Angelo's Picnic Pizza (Antioch)
Friday Night Slice, Part 12: Manny's House of Pizza
Friday Night Slice, Part 13: Nashville Pizza Co.
Friday Night Slice, Part 14: Brick's Cafe
Friday Night Slice, Part 15: Sal's Pizza (Hermitage)
Friday Night Slice, Part 16: Painturo's (Mt. Juliet)
Friday Night Slice, Part 17: Brothers' Pizza (Franklin)
Friday Night Slice, Part 18: Snappy Tomato, Roma Pizza and Jet's
Friday Night Slice, Part 19: Geadello's Pizza


While my pizza reporting will continue to be sporadic throughout the remainder of the year, the quest for the best pizza isn't dead! Got any suggestions for places that I should cover? Let me know!