A place that my wife and I have been over to in downtown Rock Island in the past - but not for awhile - is a pizza place called Huckleberry's. They had gone through a devastating fire a few years back, but they rebuilt and reopened less than four months later. We hadn't been there since they had reopened and it sort of dawned on us one Friday night that we needed to go try the place out again.
Huckleberry's owner, Jon Keim, and his then-girlfriend at the time - now wife - were asleep in their apartment above Huckleberry's when a fire broke out on an early Saturday morning in a building a couple doors from Huckleberry's that used to a cafe. The building had been slated to be torn down at some point, and had been vacant for some time. Keim and his girlfriend woke up when they smelled smoke and saw flames in the building next to them. They were able to make it out, but Huckleberry's sustained heavy water and smoke damage, along with 8 other buildings. Some of them had to be razed after the fire was put out. Keim cleaned up the damage and rebuilt one of the two dining rooms at Huckleberry's and, miraculously, they reopened in early 2015. Keim has now owned Huckleberry's for over 25 years.
Huckleberry's is located on 18th Street in the heart of the Arts and Entertainment District of Rock Island, known locally as "The District". (see map) We were able to find a parking spot on the street in front of Huckleberry's, which is usually tough to do on a weekend evening given all the bars and restaurants in the immediate area.
The main dining area as you go in to Huckleberry's looks pretty much the same as it was when we were last in there. Knotty pine wooden booths were along the brick walls with tables on either side of a half wall in the center of the room. The open kitchen area in the back was bustling with workers keeping up with pizza and calzone orders that were coming in for dine in and take out.
The dining area off to the side that sustained considerable damage in the fire had a nice comfortable vibe to it. This room is used for overflow or for events, primarily. Surprisingly, no one was seated in the room that Friday evening.
We were seated at one of the booths in the main dining area and given a couple menus to look over. Our server for the evening, Jessica, came over to greet us and to take our drinks order. They had a handful of craft beers on tap and in bottles including a number of Samuel Adams selections. They had a lot of fruit beers available and the only IPA they had was a New Belgium Voodoo Ranger, but I've never really been a fan of the New Belgium beers. I just sucked it up and got a domestic bottle. My wife got a glass of the house chianti.
Pizza and calzones are the main items Huckleberry's is most well-known for, but they also have a handful of pasta entrees including a bucatini pasta in a carbonara sauce with prosciutto ham and bacon, a shrimp and cheese tortellini with a basil pesto sauce, and an oven-baked pasta with penne pasta, in a spicy marinara with ground sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, onions and green peppers layer with a combination of cheddar and mozzarella cheese. Sandwiches such as a meatball sub or an Italian beef hoagie were also available on Huckleberry's menu, as well as a number of appetizers and salads. We split a Caesar's salad to start off with because my wife felt she needed some greens in her if we were going to be eating dough, cheese and greasy meats. It was actually a pretty good salad.
Since it had been awhile from our last visit, we remembered the calzones were pretty good. But my wife was sort of thinking we needed to try their pizza, too. We ordered both a small calzone and a 7" hand-tossed pizza - both with sausage, pepperoni and mushrooms - to share between the two of us. The calzone came out in a big mound stuffed full of the Italian meats and mushrooms with a mixture of ricotta and mozzarella cheeses. It was served with a side of their sweet marinara sauce to dip the calzone crust in. The calzone was good, not great, but it was certainly fine for us.
The pizza was loaded mozzarella cheese on the top and had a bit of caramelization of the cheese and crust around the edges. It was far from a Quad City-style pizza - which my wife and don't care for - with four triangle cuts with generous amounts of the toppings under the thick and gooey mozzarella. It wasn't the best pizza we've had, nor was it the worst. But, like the calzone, it worked for what we were looking for that evening.
The service was a little sketchy as our server would disappear for long periods of time after our food was served. I wanted another beer and my wife had to flag down another server who took my beer order. Jessica finally brought the bottle back to me and asked how things were going. By that time, we were pretty much done with our meals leaving pieces of the pizza and calzone crusts on the plates.
But other than our server sort of disappearing after our meal was served and not checking with us to see if we needed anything else - like another beer - we had little to no problems at Huckleberry's. Well, we also thought it was a little pricey, however - for all we got with an individual sized pizza and a calzone with three toppings or ingredients, a Caesar's salad, domestic beers and a glass of wine - the bill came to just a shade over $50 bucks before tip and tax. The calzone and the pizza we had were good - not great, but good. I was a little crestfallen for the lack of a good selection of craft beers, and the majority of the craft beers were fruit-based which I don't care for. The place is clean, cozy and comfortable, to say the least. We decided that Huckleberry's was worthy of future visits and I especially want to try their oven-baked pasta entree at some point in the future. If you're looking for a good and serviceable calzone or pizza - and don't mind paying a little more than other places in the area - I don't think you'll be disappointed in the ones at Huckleberry's.
I love Huckleberry's. They have a great pizza with ham and pesto. We just had our wedding reception there.
Posted by: Sarah | December 13, 2019 at 10:15 AM