A friend and I, wanting to try some pizza we hadn’t had before, decided to go to Brickyard Pizza, a small pizza place across from the University of New Mexico, 2216 Central Ave SE ,(505)262-2216. We arrived around 7 on Thursday. There weren’t many people there, but the room was abuzz with the chatter of 5 different TVs, all broadcasting sports.
Right away I was afraid the pizza would be relegated to an afterthought of watching games. There is a small bar, a few beers on tap and a hand full of different menu items, like bread sticks and other appetizers, but it seems they mostly serve pizza. They serve slices, but my friend and I decided to get a 12″ pie in the ‘hand tossed’ style (they offer a deep dish), half cheese, half mushroom, onion, and green chile (around $12).
For those not from or familiar with the southwest, you may need to reference ‘green chile’. I always like to have a side of half cheese when eating pizza at an unfamiliar restaurant. Pizza, in its essentials, is the bread (or crust), sauce and cheese. If those three elements aren’t good then toppings are usually hiding faults instead of enhancing merits.
The service, which was excellent, and the beer, were the only enjoyable aspects. The pizza arrived looking and smelling good, but the flavor leaved much to be desired. The crust was dense, chewy and almost rubbery. The sauce was a thick and dark red paste that must have been, along with the cheese, of the cheapest available ingredients from Sysco, the Wal-Mart of restaurant distributors. The thick layer of cheese was sliding off the pizza and when cooled became strange and stretchy. The toppings on the other side didn’t help, as the onions were sliced much bigger than my taste prefers and were more crunchy than soft. The mushrooms were fine and thickly sliced, and the green chile was fresh and mildly spicy, but they could not help redeem the unpleasant aspects of the pie. I will usually finish a pizza even if it isn’t great, but neither my friend nor I could eat the last slice.
I do have my own personal preferences that may make the experience different for some, but the yelling at TVs by other patrons and the dried oregano that topped the entire pizza were more reasons for me to not want to come back unless I hear the recipes have drastically changed. Brickyard Pizza in Albuquerque gets 2 our of 8 slices.
