Anytime a new pizza place opens in the Quad Cities - and it isn't Quad Cities-style pizza - my wife and I are anxious to give it a try. When we found out from good friends of ours that a new pizza place would be opening up in downtown Davenport that would be a "by-the-slice" establishment with craft beers and margaritas available, we were even more excited. However, the record setting flood of last spring sort of derailed their opening day plans pushing their official opening back nearly two months as they cleaned up flood waters in and around their building. On a Friday night with really nothing to do last fall, we decided to head down to LoPiez to check the place out.
Andrew and Peter Lopez grew up in Davenport and got into the service industry at an early age. (As an aside, their cousin is Colby Lopez, better known as Seth Rollins, one of the superstar wrestlers under the World Wrestling Entertainment banner. Lopez/Rollins is a Davenport native and still maintains a residence here.) In their early 20's, the brothers moved to Colorado and Andrew got a job at Mellow Mushroom, an Atlanta-based pizza chain that was just starting up in Denver. But he soon found himself working for a Denver-based band as their tour manager and traveled across the nation. His love for pizza never declined, however, and he was able to try different types of pizza all over the U.S. His favorite - by far - was the "by-the-slice" style of pizza New York City is known for.
A couple three years ago, the brothers had moved back to the Quad Cites and had been working for the Great River Brewing Company when something just clicked in their heads. Why not do a New York-style pizza joint in the Quad Cities? But they also wanted their place to have a rock and roll vibe to it. And they needed a place for their venture and one came open in late 2018.
Pictured at right - Peter and Andrew Lopez. Photo courtesy LoPiez Facebook page.
An establishment called "Panini and Friends", a small restaurant attached to Ruby's, a combination bike shop/bar/restaurant that was profiled on Road Tips here, closed up in late December of 2018 after being open for just over one year. The small shop was open for breakfast and lunch, but never really caught on the way the owners had hoped. When that space became available, the Lopez brothers jumped at the chance to take it over. The lease was signed in early 2018 and they set about turning the spot into a pizza joint with a little bar. Things were going along pretty well until the nearby Mississippi River started to flood and that caused drains to back up into the restaurant. They had hoped to by open by the end of April of last year, but on April 30, the HESCO barriers that had been erected to keep flood waters out of the downtown area gave way and the building was surrounded by water.
It took the Lopez brothers another nearly two months before they could get back in to get the mess cleaned up. Compared to other businesses in the downtown area, they were spared much of the damage that caused some places to stay closed for months on end. LoPiez finally opened for business toward the end of June of last year.
We went down to LoPiez just after 7:30 on a Friday night. Our friends had been touting LoPiez, mainly because their son grew up with the Lopez brothers. Actually, I had a couple pieces of LoPiez pizza last summer as they sent some to the backstage area at the annual Mississippi Valley Blues Festival that I again helped out with. But it was delivered more than a half hour after it had been taken out of the oven, so I don't think I really had what I would call a true representation of their pizza. So we were eager to try Lopiez that evening last fall as we found a parking space in the lot next to the building located at E. 3rd and LeClaire Street in downtown Davenport. (see map)
Upon entering the building we found a lively and well-lit place that had a small L-shaped bar upfront with counter service for ordering food. True to form, rock music was playing in the background, but it wasn't loud or obnoxious. Decorations were minimal in the space, save for large posters done by local artist/musician Johnnie Cluney that hung on the wall above some banquette seats. (Cluney is also responsible for the "Welcome to Downtown Davenport" mural the Lopez brothers are standing in front of in the photo above.) The place was packed and we were surprised to see all different age groups in there. As we walked in, a couple got up from one of the tables and my wife parked herself there while I went to get us a menu to look over. It turned out we were pretty lucky.
Pizzas can be ordered by-the-slice, or whole in either 10 inch or 20 inch sizes. Calzones are also available at LoPiez. Bread knots topped with an agave garlic butter and parmesan cheese are also available along with a choice of a marinara sauce or LoPiez's El Rancho sauce. All the standard pizza toppings are available with premium toppings such as fresh mozzarella, chicken, artichoke hearts, bacon and vegan meatballs available for a slight upcharge.
As I said, it's counter service at LoPiez and the line kept growing with both eat-in and carry-out orders. We were amazed at the number of large 20" pizzas they sold for carry-out. It gave me time to kind of figure out the lay of the land with how and what to order. My wife had heard from our friends that they make a pretty good margarita. When I went up to order a couple slices for us, I also found that they had Kona Big Wave in 16 ounce cans. Another score for me!
Our first pizza slices we ordered was a slice of their Margherita pizza for both my wife and I, and a slice of the Italian sausage, pepperoni and mushroom for me. After about 10 minutes, one of the kitchen workers came out with slices on paper plates, calling my name. The slices were large and my wife said she was happy with getting just one slice. The Margherita pizza was topped with fresh mozzarella, chopped basil and sprinkled parmesan cheese in a tangy sweet tomato sauce. The thin crust of the slice was especially tasty. We couldn't figure it out. Was it garlic in the crust? Was it butter? Was it herbs? Was it all of the above? I'm not usually that much into the crust of the pizza, but LoPiez pizza crust was very good.
But if you click on the above picture to take a closer look at the sausage, pepperoni and mushroom pizza slice on the right, well, it just didn't taste like I thought it should. It had fresh sliced mushrooms and pepperoni on the pizza, but it didn't seem to have any outward sign of any sausage. I thought that possibly the sausage was fine crumbled sausage - like they do for Quad City-style pizza - but after a couple bites I determined that there was little to no sausage on the slice.
I decided to get another beer and a slice of the sausage, pepperoni and mushroom. When I finally got to the register to order (the line was seven people deep when I got in line), I asked the guy at the counter if their sausage was ground fine or in large chunks. "About in the middle of that, I'd say," he replied. I said I didn't think that I got any sausage on my first slice.
One of the guys in the kitchen came out and he had a slice that had sausage on it. "It's like that," the guy behind the counter told me pointing at the slice. The chunks were noticeable - not large, but not crumbly as the guy said. I said that I just had a slice that was supposed to have sausage on it, but it didn't have any on it. When I ordered a second slice with another Big Wave, he said, "I'll give you a beer on the house for that one." I thought it was a magnanimous gesture on his part. And he said he would personally make sure that I had Italian sausage on my pizza this time.
The second slice definitely had sausage on it this time. And the crust was just as wonderful as the first two slices I'd had. Now THIS was my perfect slice of pizza. The mushrooms were fresh and earthy, the pepperoni slices had a salty and spicy taste, and the Italian sausage had that great fennel seasoning to it. The pizza at LoPiez easily passed my, "Does it taste good with beer?" test.
Only we had one other problem while we were there. When the guy from the kitchen came out with my slice, he asked if he could clean up the empty's from the table. I had drank about a 1/3 of my 16 ounce can of Big Wave and after he picked some stuff up and took off toward the garbage can, I didn't realize until it was too late that he had picked up the rest of the beer that I had not drank. I was incredulous! I know it was a free beer, but it was still a lot of beer that I didn't get to drink.
Much to the embarrassment of my wife, I went up to the bar to tell the bartender that the guy had taken my well over half-full beer. The bartender asked me which guy it was. I pointed him out standing over near the other end of the bar near the kitchen and the bartender yelled to him, "Hey, did you take this guy's beer?"
The other guy yelled back, "I asked if I could take the empties and he said, 'Yeah!' "
"Well, there was nearly a full beer that you took," the bartender said back. The guy just sort of shrugged and said he was sorry. The bartender - the same guy who gave me the free Big Wave to begin with - gave me another one on the house. I pulled three one dollar bills out of my pocket and laid them on the bar. My wife thought it was a nice thing to do.
Things had settled down by the time we were finished and getting ready to leave. I walked up to the guy behind the bar who I had been dealing with and thanked him for making things right on the mistakes. He apologized profusely for the errors and I told him not to worry as it was a crazy night in there. "We will be back," we told him just before we turned to walk out of the place.
And since I wrote this entry, we have been back. We went back on a Friday night and it was packed, as usual. This time we sat at the bar and had a slice of the sausage, pepperoni and mushroom pizza - this time they didn't forget to put the sausage on it - and a slice of the Margherita pizza. The Big Wave was cold and tasty with the pizza, and my wife had a cranberry and Tito's with a very generous pour of the vodka. Actually, they did make a mistake, but it was a good mistake - they made an extra slice of the sausage, pepperoni and mushroom. The guy came out from the kitchen with it and said, "Hey, we made this one by mistake. You guys want it at no charge?" Sure!
The pizza we had at LoPiez was very good. The little problems and errors on our first visit notwithstanding, we were more than impressed with every aspect of LoPiez. The only other quibble I had with the place is that four slices of pizza came to $27.50. That's a lot for just four pieces of pizza in my book. We told our friends the next day that we had gone to LoPiez and the first thing they asked was if we were able to get in. Yeah, it was busy and my friend told me that it was busy all the time. Well, I can see why - the pizza is wonderful. Expensive, but very good. If LoPiez can cut down on the errors, it would still be a good place to go. But don't forget to take your wallet.
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