Tonys Pizza On Harris

Tony’s Pizza

WT Harris Blvd
1530 Overland Park Lane Suite 1/104
Charlotte, NC 28262
All Tony’s Photos Here

Well it was about time to expand upon the very limited exposure to Pizza in Charlotte I have had. The goal of any pizza mission and the aspects of a good pizza “joint” are as follows. Keep in mind the goal is to find a great affordable weekly place that you can reward yourself and the kids with. A Pizza “joint” of choice will become familiar like a glove to you as you are a part of a neighborhood and a good pizza place is a important part as well.

1. Should be affordable with good coupons to be found regularly.
2. Should make great Pizza the way you like it.
3. Should have friendly Italian or New York accented staff or owners.
4. Should have the smell and feel of flour on the floor, red vinyl booths, red pepper shakes and the bell behind the door when you walk in. If you have a pizza joint you love then you understand this feeling that is exclusive to pizza places.
5. Should be good enough in variety of foods to provide alternatives equal to the pizza they make (ie: calzones, meatball subs)

Well off to Tony’s for the first time and to this newly opened Tony’s location on WT Harris. This is another anchor storefront in this new apartment neighborhood just past Harris Teeter and near RT 85.

Addressing this in a systematic way using the above bullets Tony’s hits and misses on some key points. All in all you will se we were pleased with the stop and thankful for their friendly staff.

Firstly, looking at the pricing it is a bit high though comparable to other real hand tossed pizza in the area. With mediums at about $13 for a cheese that’s a bit more than one would like to drop everyweek as it comes to 17+ with toppings. Keep in mind that a medium here (like DaVincis) is much larger than a normal medium and can be viewed as almost a large. I hate to grip about a few bucks but the place is 2-3$ higher than ideal though not out of the ordinary for a restaurant of this type.

We next think about the overall taste and how well this pizza sat with our crew at home. The Pizza is very comparable to DaVincis in Davis Lake,which is popular with alot of people. You can see a nice close up of the Pizza we had right here which was with mushroom, ham and sausage. The pizza was a slight shade thicker than DaVincis which i enjoyed. If you see an old post of ours we complain about this “pursuit of thin” that many restaurants are on. “Thin” isn’t the answer to “good” and a nice “bready” crust is sometimes a much better pie. I liked the pizza slightly thicker than DaVincis though it lacked spice for my taste and agreed on by all that had it. A little garlic in the sauce and black pepper would have gone a long way to making this a great pizza. Keep in mind that we had somewhat bland ingredients, but the sausage was a bit bland as well. After eating a second slice we had wished we got pepperoni on the pie as it was a bit plain tasting. All in all its was good, perfect thick and folding but perhaps needed a bit more flavor and we will get onions and pepperoni next time to remedy this.

Third aspect above is the ownership. The owner or manager who spoke to us while we waited was friendly and cool, we thank him for being so. He is originally from Sicily, is prepared to address you order in English, Italian and Spanish and was about my age friendly and about what you would hope for.

A pizza “joint” is chatty and social like a barbershop, and if you don’t like the people its hard to make it the “place”. So props to a cool staff and taking the time to talk with us.

Aspect #4 which is the way a pizza place is in your mind was a real hit for me. The black and red Vinyl booths, rows of red pepper and framed sayings and whatnots all over the walls was right on target. After work or a game this place excelled in the way it felt to take a load off. Better than DaVincis, which we use as a measuring stick it seems, I liked the layout and casual “80’s Pizza Hut” feel of this location. If you are on lunch this is a nice place to get a seat and a slice.

The final aspect which is the variety of the menu was another strong mark for Tony’s. Tony’s has alot of the New York favorites that you just can’t get too many places. Enjoy ground beef topping, green olive topping, subs, salads, calzones and most impressively white pizza and thick style pies. White pizza is such a great changeup that a real place you call your “own” really needs to make it well. The addition of thick crust pies like up north also makes for some great crusts you can dip and eat too. The menu has a great variety, better than DaVincis, and should provide endless lunch and dinner change-ups if you live nearby.

Well that covers a good time out with my girl grabbing our first Tony’s from WT Harris. We like the layout alot and the comfortable feel of this location. The pizza looked great, was a bit plain less than extraordinary, but pretty good. I know everyone has opinions on Pizza, but if this had a few shakes of garlic and onion pwder and perhaps black pepper in the sauce it woulda hit home perfectly.

The variety of the menu was impressive and had every old favorite you could want. This nice looking menu was also a huge plus. This morning I was enjoying the cold slices from our good sized medium pie and really wished I had gotten onions on it.

I think its safe to say I will make time to try another one from this friendly place with decent pie and a nice huge menu of choices. If the Stromboli turns out to be great it could qualify as the “joint” for me.