A rather brilliant friend of mine who lives to the north told me about a pizza place he wanted me to try with him in Palm Beach Gardens. We both couldn't figure out the name of the pizzeria, but after some research we figured out it was Johnny's Hot Pie Pizza on Northlake Blvd, near Military Trail. We agreed on a date and I started the trek up there.

Johnny's Hot Pie Pizza wasn't exactly in a place I would think it would be. This plaza seemed more like the place you would find a UPS Store, a tutoring shop, and a psychologist. In its original location, Johnny's is located right off clematis street in a hipper location with more foot traffic. This sleepy section of the gardens just didn't seem to be the right choice of spots to open another.

I entered into Johnny's and immediately saw my friend (who has a phd and a j.d., he would be upset if I didn't mention that) sitting at a table. It wasn't hard to locate him since he was the only other person sitting there. After some back and forth conversation, we ultimately decided on a half pepperoni pizza. I explained to my friend that I only like plain pizza when I first try a new pizza place, but he really wanted some sort of toppings on it (he grew up down here so don't hold it against him). His dreams of having some pepperoni were quickly squashed when we were informed they didn't have any pepperoni left. The pizza guy explained that the delivery was due but hadn't come yet. After wiping away the tears off of my friends cheeks, he decided on meatball, so to try to cheer him up I just got meatball on the entire pie.

The pizza didn't take long to come out as there were no other orders that needed to be made. When the pretty nice pizza guy placed the pie on the table I was pleased with the aroma. Everything smelled fresh and had a quality fragrance to it. I took my first bite and I was quite happy with it. The cheese tasted like it was a high quality blend, and was applied generously. The sauce wasn't exactly what I love as it contained some chunks to it and didn't really have that sweet tasting flavor I enjoy. The crust was cooked pretty good but there was just too much of it around the edges. The taste of the crust wasn't extraordinary but it wasn't completely awful either. The cheese was definitely my favorite part.

In my opinion, the West Palm Beach location makes a better pie. Johnny's Hot Pie Pizza is just too far out of my way to even think about going back. For the area it is located, it probably is a unique tasting pie, but with other pizzerias opening up in the Gardens like Grimaldi's, I cannot see people out of their immediate area having the crave to rush back.

Please don't get me wrong, this was still a decent pie, but the way people spoke of the place led me to believe it was amazing.

Johnny's Hot Pie Pizza in Palm Beach Gardens gets 5 out of 8 slices.