Sometimes one picture can say it all. Here is one such picture.
Why is there uneaten pizza in this box? That is the story I'm about to tell.
About 10 years ago East of Chicago opened up pizza stores in Fort Wayne. I ate at one once and obviously wasn't impressed enough to go back. Then all the Fort Wayne stores closed and the only ones left were near small towns like Ossian and Grabill. After trying the above pizza I can only conclude that East of Chicago couldn't compete against real pizza places and had to head to the sticks.
One summer day I knew I was going to be at a park in Leo, a town about ten miles away, with my kids over lunch time. Why not surprise them with pizza? A gluten free for them and, let's see, how about a pan for me. After all, their website says "It's what made us famous. Our Signature Crust. Light and airy with a Crunch!" Oh yeah, that sound good! Half sausage, half pepperoni? Please!
Looks pretty good, doesn't it? It failed to measure up to a full 14 inches (just 13.5) but that seems pretty common. Inexcusable but common. I go in for the first bite and... yes, the crust had a nice crunch. The cheese was a bit on the this side but wasn't overly cheap. The sausage had pretty good flavor and there seemed to be average+ amount of toppings. The sauce was so non-descript that I forgot to review it.
But it wasn't super delicious. It was just okay. Average. In fact, it may be the most average pizza I've had so far. And here's the thing: it's doughy. It doesn't seem like it should be, because there isn't a lot of actual crust, it's just that it kind of sits in your stomach like a dough ball. "I'm sure it's just the heat and that once I reheat it at home, in air conditioning, it will be much improved," I told myself. It wasn't. Dough ball in the gut and not much in the flavor department. I tried to finish it because I'm cheap and there just didn't seem to be a good reason not to.
And to add insult to injury, they didn't have any specials or coupons so I paid a massive $14.97 for this mediocrity. And to think that I could have spent $9.50 for a consistently "very good" Papa Johns.... hey, maybe that's what I'll do next!
So how about those stats?
Overall Score:4.8 (bumped up because of easy ordering)
East of Chicago has the distinction of beating out Pizza King... and that's about it.
