On our way back from Columbus, OH, I had hoped to take our group to Lucca Grill in Bloomington, IL for world-class pizza. Unfortunately, it was around 12:30 p.m. when we were going through Bloomington and Lucca's didn't open until 4 p.m. on Sundays. With pizza on our mind, we tried to find some places on cellphones via the Internet in nearby Peoria that would have pizza. My friend, Scott, came up with one suggestion - a place called Firehouse Pizza. We got the address, I programmed it into my GPS and we headed off toward that direction.
It wasn't very busy when we got into Firehouse Pizza in the North Point shopping center just after 1 p.m. (see map). The interior of the restaurant is filled with firehouse and fireman memorabilia and decor. The walls are a fake brick material covered with t-shirts, patches and other insignias from fire departments around the U.S. There are a number of booths that feature small 13" televisions that allow you to watch your favorite program or sporting event.
As there were six of us, we sat at a larger rectangular booth in the corner. Unfortunately for the guys - and fortunately for the women - there was no small television at that particular booth. Most of the 4 seater booths had the televisions.
Our waitress came over and handed us menus and we ordered up some drinks, as well. In addition to their pizza, Firehouse Pizza also offers a number of appetizers, wings, calzones and salads. Their pizzas are all made from scratch and they also offer thin and crispy, New York-style hand-tossed and deep dish pizzas.
Our friends, Scott and Marcia, as well as Dave and Pat wanted the deep-dish style of pizza. Cindy and I went with the thin and crispy. Cindy and I ordered up Italian sausage, pepperoni and jalapenos (Cindy doesn't like mushrooms, even when they're fresh). The two other couples got the deep-dish pizza. The waitress said that it would be a while on the deep-dish pizzas and wanted to know if we wanted them all at the same time since our pizza wouldn't take as long. We said that was fine to bring everything at one time.
As we were waiting, the waitress came back to check on our drinks. I said, "OK, so tell me about this place."
She told us that Firehouse Pizza is owned by local firefighter Kelly Couri and his brother, Shane, hence all the firefighter stuff on display. She said that a "mom and pop" pizza place in a small town near Peoria was getting ready to close up as the owners were retiring. Kelly Couri bought their pizza recipe from the couple and then opened his first pizza place in 2003. It was a small location, but the pizza became the rage in Peoria. Firehouse Pizza moved to its present location in 2007.
She said that the Couri brothers have sold the concept of Firehouse Pizza to local franchisees and there are now five locations throughout the greater Peoria area. She said, "Honestly, I think they're growing too fast. I've been to a couple of the other Firehouse Pizzas around the area and they aren't as good as this one."
When they did bring out the pizza, well, ours was a little overdone. The crust was almost too crispy and had some major burned spots on the bottom. I'm figuring that the pizza cook didn't time the pizzas right so that the deep-dish pizzas and our thin-crust would come out at the same time. Ours actually came out first, then she brought the other two pizzas on subsequent trips.
The crust was thin and crispy, albeit a little overcooked. But the toppings - including the big chunks of Italian fennel sausage - were plentiful and the jalapenos were definitely fresh. The one thing I most certainly didn't like about Firehouse Pizza was the sauce. It was too sweet. Oh, it was OK, but I don't care for an overly sweet sauce like that on a pizza.
The other couples declared their pizza as "very good" and they both got to go boxes from the waitress to take the leftovers home with them for snacks later in the evening. The waitress asked us how our pizza was and I said, "Quite honestly, it was overcooked a bit and the sauce was way too sweet for my taste."
She said, "Oh, so you don't like the sweet sauce. You know, we have a traditional sauce that we put on pizzas, too."
I said, "Oh, I guess I didn't know that."
The waitress said, "Between you and me, I don't like the sweet sauce either. But that's what they grew their business on. They had enough people ask for a sauce that wasn't so sweet. I know they weren't happy they had to offer a sauce other than their sweet sauce, but they knew they had to do it because they were losing customers."
I would like to try Firehouse Pizza again at some point. If they would have pulled it out of the oven about three or four minutes sooner, I think I would have liked the crust a little more. Plus, the sauce was just way too thick and sweet. If I didn't have the choice of going with a traditional sauce, I probably wouldn't go back. But some people must like the sweet sauce at Firehouse Pizza. That's been their signature for over six years and that must be fine with some people. But I think they're going to garner a lot more fans by having a choice between the traditional and sweet sauces. I'll let you know what I think when I go back at some point later this year.
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