Review: Tony Impellizzeri's

The Sampler Sicilian deep dish pizza (Credit: Kylene White)

Of making surveys there is no end — especially in the service industries, where firms of all sorts expend huge amounts of time, energy and money trying to figure out why it is that Byzantine voice mail trees and annoying call center help desks are unpopular with consumers.

Most surveys use the familiar Likert scale, the one that asks you to rank on a scale of 5 or 10 points how you feel about the fact that it took you 45 minutes to reach a human being who could explain why your cellphone bill included a new $200 fee related to Area Code Reapportionment or some such thing.

In recent decades, more nuanced surveys have emerged. Now, for instance, they’ll ask you not merely how you rank something, but whether you value it. For instance, you might be asked how you feel about the architecture of a corporate headquarters, and if it’s a great building, you might give it the highest possible rank, 10 out of 10. But if asked whether as a customer you care about that building, you might say, “Heck no.” And check the 0 box.

Diners value different things at different times, and willingly trade off one dimension for another when it suits them. Sometimes they accept a less than stellar meal in order to get a spectacular view of the river. Sometimes they accept the chilly ambience of a drive-through because they have no time. Sometimes they want bargain prices — but sometimes they’re willing to pay a premium for superb food and a romantic atmosphere.

But for true pizza lovers, food quality trumps every other dimension.

And when it comes to food quality, Tony Impellizzeri’s, which opened some months ago in New Albany, takes second place to nobody in the Metro region.

Tony Impellizzeri is part of a Louisville pizza dynasty. Except for a short break several years ago, there’s been an Impellizzeri pizzeria of some sort in Louisville since the Carter administration, and these days there are three prominent locations operated by Tony’s brother Benny under the name The Orginal Impellizzeri’s Pizza.

Tony’s place is  independent from the Louisville locations. It’s a distinctly spartan operation and strictly functional. There are just a handful of tables and a few fans struggling to mitigate the heat from the ovens.

But who cares. Tony Impellizzeri’s is about old-fashioned, scratch-made quality pizza. Everything is done in house, from making the sausage to slicing the mushrooms, and the results are brilliant. His crusts have a rich flavor and superb texture. His traditional rounds (12-inch pizzas run $13.99-$24.95, depending on topping; 14-inch, $16.99-$29.95; 16-inch, $19.99-$34.95) are marvels of engineering and flavor (and feature in a lunch special, an enormous slice with breadstick, $7.95).

If your taste runs to pasta, Tony offers big plates of penne sauced in rich tomato sauce ($7.95), with vegetables ($8.95), or with superb house-made meatballs ($9.95), sausage ($9.95), or combinations of everything ($11.49), in portions that many will consider shareable.

Sandwiches — hot or cold subs, baked strombolis on crisp, piping-hot bread stuffed with sausage, mozzarella and pizza sauce, or a magnificent meatball hoagie ($7.99) — are on offer.

But the crowning glory of Tony Impellizzeri’s is the Sicilian deep dish pie ($14.99-$44.95, depending on toppings and size).

The first time I saw one of these things come out of the oven, I wished I could turn back the clock and recover my lost youth. Just as I once had no patience for the wait times at Impellizzeri’s, I also once cultivated a shallow contempt for the deep dish. In my defense, it’s worth noting that many deep-dish pizzas are horrible; in the wrong hands, they turn into spongy pools of flavor-free, mushy cheese with sodden crusts.

But that’s not a problem at Tony Impellizzeri’s. His technique is formidable. So are the results. The crusts look like newly recovered Bronze Age artifacts — rich, golden and beautiful enough to display in a museum.

Wait times can be as long as 90 minutes. But service is charming and friendly. My recommendation: Allow plenty of time, or better yet, call ahead. The other day I called a couple of hours ahead of time to place an order and schedule a pickup. I arrived at the restaurant five minutes early, and five minutes later was handed my pizza.  Wish I’d thought of that back in 1979. Oh, to be young again — but wiser.