UNFORTUNATELY DANNY'S IS UNDER CONTRACT TO SELL AND WILL NOT BE RE-OPENING. 

Recently I went to go see Stars perform at The Culture Room in Fort Lauderdale. Amazing show! We arrived a bit early, and waited for Jessie to show up, so I could give her a couple of the tickets I had gotten for her. While walking through the parking lot, and trying to avoid the light rain drops that were falling, I noticed there was a new pizza place located in the decrepit plaza. Several years ago, around the time I met The French Fry Fairy and Burger Beast, I was told there was a really good pizza place on the corner of US-1 and Oakland Park road, in Fort Lauderdale. One night I drove down to find it, thinking it was in the Southwest corner of the intersection, but couldn't find any pizza in the plaza, so I gave up and went down the road to Kitchenetta instead since the plaza was dimly lit, and kind of creeped me out. Turns out, the readers who suggested I try the good pizza in this area, actually meant the Southeast part of the intersection, which was Times Square Pizza. We had previously reviewed it and found it to be pretty good. Anyways, since I knew there wasn't a pizza place in this run down plaza a couple of years ago, I figured this Danny's Pizza would be worth trying, just to see if it was yet another pizza place trying to exploit a late night crowd that didn't have many options around by charging them $4 a slice for sub-par pizza.

Upon walking into Danny's Pizza in Fort Lauderdale, we were greeted by two extremely friendly guys. We later found out they are both owners and both named "Danny", hence the reason for naming the place Danny's Pizza. After many years in Corporate America they decided to move down here and open up a quaint, chic, pizza place, that serves much more than just pizza. They have a full beer menu, as well as screens to watch all the games. Furthermore their appetizers looked amazing. Since this was my first visit, I decided to just stick with a couple of slices. While waiting for the pizza to arrive, we had a wonderful conversation with the two Danny's, one definitely more outgoing than the other (you know who you are hahaha). If the pizza was anything like their personalities, I knew it had the potential to be a great slice.

My slice of Pizza from Danny's arrived on an excessively large plate (I have since been informed they corrected this issue), so I wasn't sure if the slice was small, or the plate was just too large. Turned out it was certainly the plate. Danny's Pizza cooks their pies in a Brick Oven. This is extremely unusual for a place that sells slices. This is typically because of the investment having an oven like this can require. Brick Ovens give a much different (many times better) taste then traditional Baker's Pride ovens. I was happy to see that the two Danny's found that the taste of genuine pizza in their customers mouths, was worth the price. A little history on Brick Oven Pizza first:

Most pizza ovens use electricity or gas to cook pizzas. Wood burning brick ovens ovens obviously use wood and it is from this wood that you encounter a taste and smell that you normally can only find in places that have ovens 50 years or older. Those who use a Brick Oven know that it could take an hour or so to heat up, but one bite of pizza cooked this way will reveal a rush of flavor in your mouth that makes it worth the wait. The kind of oven that Danny's Pizza uses, will reach temperatures above 650 degrees. Most of them can easily sustain temperatures this high, while managing to cook evenly throughout the oven. Pizza made in this style oven will cook quite fast, and if the pizza is prepared correctly before being put in, the crust will come out perfect and even.

Another reason many slice places do not use these ovens, is because they can command more for an individual pie, to help pay back the cost. This is not the case at Danny's Pizza, since they give you a 16 inch pie for only $12.00. No trying to rip off anyone here, and they easily could if they wanted to. My slice was crisp on the bottom, with a nice smokey taste. The sauce was not excessively applied underneath what could, based on taste, only be a sea of Grande Cheese. I would guess Eastern Blend of course. The ingredients Danny's Pizza uses combined, makes for an excellent pizza experience.

In my opinion I couldn't really find too many flaws in this slice. If you do not like a lot of cheese, this is probably not the best slice for you, but if you are ordering a pie, you can always ask for a lighter amount. With the amount of money Danny's Pizza spends on their quality ingredients, coupled with their fantastic oven, I am shocked they do not charge a lot more for the food they serve. These are businessmen who care about their customers first, and their profit margin second. Let me tell you something Danny's, usually the profit margin comes by serving great food at a great price, and you have both. I will DEFINITELY be back, and I recommend to our readers, that if you are in the area, go grab a slice and try it out. These guys deserve to succeed, but due to the plaza it resides in, it might not be a place you normally would find and try. No signs from the road, kind of hidden, and not well lit, so although it takes a bit of effort to find them, it is worth the trouble.

Danny's Pizza in Fort Lauderdale gets 7 out of 8 slices.