Review: BoomBozz Taphouse

(Credit: Michael Clevenger)

There's no culinary mystery around Tony Palombino's approach to creating award-winning gourmet pizzas. It's a simple matter of selecting excellent ingredients, combining them in smart, inventive ways and using reliable quality control measures that ensure a consistent product time after time.

It's worked brilliantly for Palombino since 1998, when he opened the first Tony BoomBozz in St. Matthews. It's worked brilliantly over the last decade as the BoomBozz mini-chain has grown to encompass four units serving the Louisville area. And it's working pretty darned well at the new BoomBozz Taphouse in the Highlands.

The Taphouse is a spacious, bright, nicely appointed, full-service pizzeria done up in brick, wood, and glass. It offers a fun patio that looks into the hub of the Highlands, the intersection of Bardstown Road and Eastern Parkway. Inside, a mostly classic rock soundtrack creates a comforting sonic background that complements the nearly wall-to-wall wide screen TVs tuned into a full array of sporting events.

A long, comfortable bar supplies not only a full selection of spirits, but a fine list of draft and bottled beers that includes a generous selection of craft beers and imports. And then there's the frost-rimmed “ice bar” that runs the length of the bar, permitting those who so choose to keep their pints and (and larger glasses) well-chilled from first sip to last.

An assortment of appetizers -- dips, wings, nachos, etc., priced $6 to $8 – are on offer. And crisp, nicely prepared salads ($2.99 for a side salad to $8 for a dinner salad with grilled chicken) make excellent openers as well.

But pizza is the thing here. And the pizzas, which come on three crusts, “traditional,” “Neapolitan thin,” and whole wheat, are grand -- especially the selection of gourmet pizzas, which show the same imagination, care and attention to detail that you'd expect to find in the finest restaurants in the city. .

Take the D'Sienna, for instance (all the “Famous Creation” pizzas run $8.99, individual; $15.99, medium; $18.99, large). We ordered it on a thin crust – thin, with a fine crunch, but plenty of load-bearing capacity. The sauce – a rich blend of tomato sauce and cream – was as velvety and rich as anything you'd find in a family-run streetside restaurant in Rome. Leaves of fresh spinach were nestled in a smooth, full-flavored blend of Mozzarella and Asiago, with a salty trace of Romano. And red, ripe cubes of diced tomatoes were arranged on top as neatly as the red checks in a gingham dress.

If the D'Sienna was a study in nuance, the Quattro exploded with robust energy. This one, served on a traditional crust – a slightly thicker, pleasantly bready base – was sauced with a brightly spiced red sauce that framed hearty chunks of Italian sausage, thin slices of prosciutto, and wedges of artichoke and Portobello mushrooms – a superb combination of aggressive flavors and luxurious textures. Other combinations include grilled chicken in garlic cream sauce (or with chipotle sauce and fire roasted peppers and onions), marinated chicken with roasted potatoes, red onions and a garlic olive oil glazed crust, and more. And, of course, a full list of pizza toppings is available for those who prefer to build their own. A cheese pizza runs $6.99; $9.99; $11.99, with each additional topping adding $1; $1.39; or $1.59.

The pizzas are as fine and rigorously prepared as you'll find anywhere. Sandwiches don't rise to the same level. A baked meatball sandwich ($6.99), though generously sized, was filled with lackluster meatballs – and the Italian roll had been brushed with oil, herbs, and a sprinkle of cheese that gave the sandwich a slippery, greasy, unpleasant feel in the hands. And though the pizzas are world class, the service is distinctly casual – to the point where on recent visits it sometimes seemed scattered and out of synch.

Definitely in synch, though, is the guilty pleasure of BoomBozz's Pizza Cookie ($4.99) a piping hot pan filled with moist, baked chocolate chip cookie dough and a scoop of vanilla ice cream that will definitely supply a sweet finish for three or four happy diners.

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