Just got back from trying out a new place that opened near Clematis Street in downtown West Palm Beach, named Hot Pie Pizza.  Upon walking into the place I was pretty impressed with the decor and layout of the restaurant.  They had a full bar in the front by the door and windows, and a row of booths to the narrow corridor on the left.  We were greeted by an amazingly friendly server, who also happened to be the bar tender.

The place was empty besides us on this day, primarily due to the tropical wave that was unloading what seemed like an ocean of rain.  Although I was soaked, and freezing, no storm was going to stop me from trying a new "coal" place in town.  We ordered a large pie, half plain and half with mushrooms.  In a pretty firm way, I told the server to make sure she tells the pizza guy to separate the mushrooms from the plain half.  From the photos above you can see how effective that was.  If this waitress wasn't so awesome and bubbly, I might have been more pissed.  She reminded me of a character you would find on the hills, or the OC or something.  Very cute, with a smile that never quit.  Anyways, my wife would probably want me to stop at this point so I will.

To further investigate the coal oven claim, I peaked inside the oven to see that half of it was filled with coal, but the other half was gas or electric lit?

As you can see by the photo, and the photo is pretty accurate to what I saw, the coal wasn't even lit and almost appears just for show?  Maybe it was early in the day and it didn't get hot, but until I see it a second time, I am not going to be able to say that they actually cook with coal.

When the pizza came out, it was of course non segregated, and quite a bit of the mushrooms were on my plain half, which caused me to have to cut away some of the tips of my slices.  Why couldn't they just follow the directions I gave them.  Actually, why did they need directions at all?  It should be an unspoken rule that when a pie is ordered with half toppings, that they make sure the other half is without that topping.  It is the kind of thing you find happening in places where the pizza cook doesn't really put the time and effort to ensure a good pizza experience.

The crust was good here, and the cheese was so melted and gooey that I couldn't get enough of it hot.   The sauce was pretty decent, and I don't really have anything good or bad to mention about it.  Just wish I could have enjoyed the slices without having to pick off mushrooms.  Kind of made me biased.

Hot Pie Pizza is not related to Fire Rock Pizza in downtown West Palm Beach.  It is an employee who left and started his own.  Hot Pie has a really cute back room that would be great for a private party, or even a PizzaTweetup, which I mentioned to the waitress, but never heard from the owner about.  Guess they don't need the extra business, and exposure that comes with our events.

Hot Pie Pizza gets 5 out of 8 slices, and I will definitely return to try it again.

<a href="http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/12/1480337/restaurant/Miami/Hot-Pie-Pizza-Bar-West-Palm-Beach"><img alt="Hot Pie Pizza & Bar on Urbanspoon" src="http://www.urbanspoon.com/b/logo/1480337/minilogo.gif" style="border:none;width:104px;height:15px" /></a>