Clifton's Pizza Company: A Man's Dream Calzone

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Clifton's Pizza Company

2230 Frankfort Ave

Louisville, Kentucky 40206

(502) 893-3730

June 8, 2010

8:00 PM

CALZONE RATING:

Matt/Amy's Scores:

# of Fillings to Choose: 21

Filling Selection: 8/10=80%

Sauce: 7/10= 70%

Crust: 8/10=100%

Filling: 10/10= 80%

Overall Taste: 8/10= 80%

Size: We each got our own calzone and ate about half of it,

we both rated it as more than enough for two.

But we were happy that we could take the other

half home for lunch the next day.

Price: Menu price for calzones $7.95. Their calzones are build your own style, you choose six toppings to fill your calzone with. Then it is baked with cheese and sauce inside what they call a “thin pizza crust.”

Types Tried
Amy---Chicken, Pepperoni, Broccoli, Garlic, Green Peppers, & Hot Pepper Rings (which we found out are Banana Peppers.)

Matt---Pepperoni, Bacon, Ham, Sausage, Broccoli, & Green Peppers

Comments: When we both received our calzones we were starving. The menu states that the calzones are huge and they weren’t kidding. We overheard some gentlemen behind us stating that the calzone was the largest one they had seen but we were skeptical. It arrived large and in charge with a side of ruffles potato chips. (Amy thought the chips were random and unnecessary.) At first I did not know how to eat such a large calzone but soon dug in with my hands. The middle is overflowing with an abundance of toppings and gooey cheese. The amount of toppings and meat that filled it was any mans dream calzone. The crust was crispy, and cooked to perfection, although when comparing the crust to other calzones thus far we don’t think it could top them. The one downfall on this calzone was the sauce, as it received a 70% we thought it was an average sauce and reminded of us one we might buy in a jar off the shelves at Kroger (but like I said that was its one and only pitfall.)

Overall Calzone score: 41/50=82% B

PIZZERIA RATING:

                       Matt & Amy:

Cleanliness:   6/10=60%,

Ambiance:     8/10=80%,

Friendliness:  8/10=80%,

Service:          8/10=80%,

Overall Pizzeria Rating: 30/40=75% C

(Check out all the random decor and knick knacks behind Matt!!)

Comments: As we drove up Frankfort Avenue it was a new adventure for us. We’ve both lived in Louisville our entire lives and we’ve ventured down Frankfort Avenue a few times for different things, but here we were in the heart of it. This section of Frankfort Avenue is lined with restaurant after restaurant, and Clifton’s Pizza Company has a prime location on a corner (across from Ginnie’s Diner.) So maybe we’ve been living in a box in Louisville our whole lives, just eating at places along Hurstbourne, Shelbyville, Taylorsville, and Bardstown Rd, and even more recently we’ve ventured out into the Old Louisville area…but this was new to us. We’d never seen or heard of half the restaurants that we saw up and down this area of town. So it seems like our calzone adventure might just be opening us up into some new culture and new things in Louisville, as we now have a list of new places we want to try!!

(the wall art...)

As for the Clifton Pizza Company pizzeria, its definitely a dive, it’s a large area though. It seems that as they outgrew their first area and they bought up the next door store and spread out over there as well. The walls are covered in art, and some weird knick knacks…and I mean weird…a little man that’s on a tight rope, a pizza on the wall, and a skateboard?? We’re still not sure what all that was about! Danny Flanigan was in the other part of the restaurant where the bar was located and he was playing guitar and singing, this definitely helped out their ambiance score! After the first couple bites of our calzone we were interrupted by a customer yelling (she’d walked in about 2 minutes prior) The screaming customer claimed that our server had hung up the phone on her three times and cussed her out. (According to the customer this has happened before) She went on to berate our server. She asked for his name numerous times and asked for the manager. There was no manager on duty but a cook came out to address the situation and soon told her to leave or he was going to call the cops. She stormed around the restaurant yelling and said “no wonder you only have four customers here and walked out.” No one in the restaurant seemed to care to much, they were all enjoying their drinks and food, and we were cracking up that this lady was making such a fool of herself. Before she walked out the door she turned around to tell the workers how much of a redneck they are and that he needed to go get some new teeth. According to our server she is a constant hassle and is always complaining in hopes of scoring free food. We found her claims to be false. After she left about 10 people came in to the restaurant. We had good service throughout. It made for an interesting night.

Pros: The calzone crust is crispy, and delicious. You can choose up to six toppings for your calzone (for one low price) and they don’t skimp on the toppings, your calzone is packed with the toppings of your choice. The service was fast and we found the staff to be friendly. They have pitchers of beer to choose from, and 5 out of the 7 nights of the week they have live music.

Cons: I felt like the sauce in the calzone was too much at times, but during other bites of my calzone their was no sauce, so more of an even distribution would’ve been better. I also didn’t think my broccoli was cooked enough (but that’s my preference that I didn’t want it as raw.) Our server was attentive, although after the “situation” he seemed distracted and was on his cell phone several times as he checked our table, but I guess that’s what you get at such a laid back pizzeria.

Suggestions: Make sure you come hungry!! And definitely choose 6 toppings, I thought for a second six might be too many to blend together, but it actually makes it better. Although it’s definitely a dive it could use some sprucing up inside, and a little bit more of a professional attitude from the workers would probably do the place some good, but as for us we didn't mind!

If you've never been to Clifton's Pizza Company, you're definitely missing out!! The calzone was great, although the pizzeria might be lacking in a few areas, the calzone wasn't a miss. If you walked into this place knowing nothing about it you would probably walk right out, but then you would never know how good their calzones are. You get a lot for your money and it's probably the best value on a calzone we've gotten so far (and by far the most fillings!!) But I hate to break it to you Clifton's...we just don't think you're "the one."

So the hunt continues....