Lake Life Review
The gang of Tara, Max, Joy and myself, Susan, had so much fun with the burger review that we decided to see what the Lakes area had for pizza places for this issue. Once again, our local restaurants have so many good things and unique options.
Pizza, is just pizza, right? WRONG! Every single place we went to had something that made their pizza unique from the last place! I would highly recommend in having a "tour de lakes" like we did and have pizza all day long. We only had 4 people, I would recommend at least eight people to help devour all these tasty pies!
Our adventure started at PUB 19, which is on the very west side of West Okoboji along Hwy 86. It is right on Okoboji View's golf course. What a beautiful place to eat!
April, who was a complete delight, brought out our VERY LARGE pizza to try. She made their most popular on their menu which is called Brooklyn Bridge. It didn't lack any toppings. It was heaped with pepperoni, sausage, onion, green pepper, mushrooms and black olives. They make their own dough everyday, and then let it set overnight. Once your order comes in, they hand toss your dough and add the fresh ingredients including hand grated cheese. They cook it in a 500 degree brick oven, which means in a short time you will be consuming it's amazingness! Everyone loved the crust. Tara also mentioned they are not skimpy on the fresh toppings.
Pub 19 has your "regular" pizzas along with very unique pizzas, including Chicken Alfredo and Verdo Primo which includes artichoke hearts, fresh mushrooms, mozzarella cheese, pesto, and goat cheese over garlic and tomato sauce. It all sounds so good. We all would highly recommend Pub 19 pizza to anyone. Just bring a few people to help you eat it! And have it all year around!
Our next stop...THE Waterfront. At the Waterfront they have very fine dining, but also serve these A-M-A-Z-I-N-G flat bread pizzas. There are over a dozen unique pizzas! The Waterfront is located on the southeast shores of East Okoboji. You can come by boat or by car. Tom who manages The Waterfront, made us his favorite pizza. Oh wait he is like me, he likes them all, but he made a decision and made us Beach Bum, which includes Cajun Alfredo sauce, bronzed chicken, roasted red/yellow peppers, onions, fresh basil, mozzarella cheese and sweet and hot spices.
I have to admit this flatbread pizza is not new to me. When I discovered it a few years ago, I made my husband take me about once a week and we would try a new flat bread each time. Oh wait. Not just one, he would order one, and I would order one and we would share, that way we could sample two each time. They are all so good and unique.
They can place any of these pizzas on 3 different crusts. They have the flatbread crust, cauliflower crust and the artisan round, which is similar to a "regular" crust. Our pizza was served on the favorite, flatbread. Although on my many visits to try all of them, I tried the cauliflower crust and I had never tasted a cauliflower crust that was so tasty! These pizzas are cooked in a very large brick oven. It takes just 4 minutes in that oven, and this oven can cook 15 pizzas at a time! We all loved the unique flavors on the Beach Bum. I would highly recommend not settling for one of the pizzas, but to try them all.
Not only did Tom make us his favorite, but joined us. Thank you Tom for taking time out of your day to join us and teach us all about these pizzas! Although, I can't blame you. We ate out on their deck and looked out onto East Lake. It was beautiful! I mean, come on...look at that view.
The RITZ not only has amazing burgers but they have a wide selection of great pizzas as well! Taylor at the Ritz invited us back to try a pizza. This time, we got to eat on the deck. The Ritz sets on East Okoboji right before the bridge that separates East and West Okoboji Lakes. Another gorgeous location to enjoy good food on the lake of Okoboji.
Taylor served us with one pizza. Half of the pizza was Garbage pizza and the other half was Sweet Chili. Max fell in love with the Sweet Chili pizza and it was hard for all of us to squeeze a piece of it from him. Sweet Chili pizza has a sweet chili sauce, chicken, bacon, sweet banana pepper, onion and basil. The sweet chili sauce made this pizza what it was - so tasty!
The garbage side of the pizza had a little of everything. Or as the menu says "a little of this and a little of that." The fresh ingredients made up of veggies and meat was delicious!
The Ritz has 4 different types of crusts you can have your pizzas made on: original, thin, cauliflower or gluten free. Ours was served on the original. And the crust was great. But what made this pizza was the toppings and the cheese. Look at that cheese!
PIZZA RANCH. PIZZA RANCH. PIZZA RANCH. Am I the only one that have kids that will start a chant if we get close to this restaurant? Kids love this restaurant, especially the buffet that includes the many different pizzas, as well as dessert pizza. Don't forget about the chicken and mashed potatoes. Oh wait...ice cream too. And it is all-you-can eat! Not only do kids love this place but they have something for everyone. So many unique pizzas on the menu. Terry, the owner of Spirit Lake's Pizza Ranch, cooked us a pizza with half Stampede and the other Prairie. Stampede has everything...it does...it says so on the menu! And Prairie has all the veggies, no meat. The veggies are cut in larger slices. Making it look so craveable. Both were very tasty! They have thin, original skillet, stuffed and gluten free pizza crusts. Ours was served on original. And as everyone knows. I am an original kind of girl. I think their crust tastes a little on the sweet side. YUM!
Our last stop is a new shop that popped up this summer, Lost in the Sauce Boji. As we got to know these two young men that started this business, it intrigued us so much we decided to do a complete story about how they came about and where they got their ideas for this pizza. Read that later in this issue. But I do need to tell you how good it was. William and Jackson cooked us two different pizzas. One was their all meat and then the other was their cheese pizza. They made the all meat pizza from scratch as we waited. They also wanted us to try their par-baked pizza, which just means they made it from scratch but they cooked it ahead of time about 75% of the way. When someone orders it, then they will cook it the rest of the way in the 1000 degree oven. You heard that right, 1000 degrees. They can cook these pizzas very fast.
And as many places do in Italy, William recommends to drizzle honey over the pizza. I do like sweet things which includes sweet meats, now I guess I can add sweet pizza to that list. Read more about these boys that have a strong entrepreneur spirit and how Lost in the Sauce Boji came to be later in this issue.
That's a wrap. We did it once again. We left all full. Okay over full and really wanted to nap after our 3 hour lunch to get all of these pizzas in. But so well worth it. A pizza is just a pizza right? WRONG! The different type of crusts, or how they prepare the crust or type of cheese and even to the cut of the veggies, make these pizzas all so different. We once again want to thank all that participated with us and recommend to all of our readers to give each one a try.