Food Critic of the Worst kind

"Why not?" Walking around the Haymarket with my wife. Pretending like we live in the city in our large town (at best). A town on the move. A town with hints of city. Alternatives, different cultures, different restaurants, and most of all, different foods. I tell my wife all the time I want to do something different. She sighs. She's heard this before. She knows me. She knows my comfort zone is small and the power it takes to change it. The power I lack. This time I mean it. This time when I say let's do something different, we are. "This time," said so many times. This time though.... Pizza has always been a passion of mine. Through my history of loving healthy and nutritious foods I have always had a side chick. Pizza has been there through thick and thin. Pizza was there when I was a child with nothing else to eat. Pizza has been there to celebrate some of life's biggest milestones. Pizza has supported me and I it, in both the healthiest and unhealthiest of times. Well pizza, it is time to get your due. In the spirit of adventure for a 31-year-old dad, I want to explore my own town a little bit. I want to find hidden treasures and challenge the status quo. I want to reach out of what I know and what others assume to present on a topic important to me, good pizza. My preferences: Saucy, robust, pizza, buttery crispy crust, thick, authentic meats. If you like thin crust, no sauce, or a simple pizza hot pocket will suffice, then this place isn't for you. This is for pizza lovers of all types. Just like the first time I play any new board game and get bored of reading the rule book, let's just get started. First up, Isles Pub & Pizza, Lincoln, Ne.

Description of place according to Google: Straightforward tavern

Journeys all have a starting point, and mine starts here. A legend of pizza in Lincoln, Isles is all the way across town and therefore not usually a choice due to this fact. Unfortunately, I go with what I know. Growing up, this meant frozen pizzas, Papa Johns was a favorite due to dipping sauce, or Pizza Hut on fancy occasions. Isles is different and unique. Unique is important for me. If mass made without any defective areas in pies then that is a negative. My rankings are based on:

Saucy (quantity and quality) Meats (thick or packaged lunch meat) Cheese (flavor and quantity) Crust (texture and thickness) Spice (somewhat spicy, a little sweet) Consistency- Based on experience and overall how I am feeling this day. So there it is. My rankings. I can alter this at any time and if the person who serves it to me when I pick it is rude, I will put a minus somewhere. I like non-rude people. Life's too short for rudeness, especially when serving up Za (my abbreviation for pizza obviously). I'm still determining if I am going to do any history or not. Honestly, that part isn't important to me personally, but if you want all that, just Google it. I've read some Yelp reviews and rankings of places but they don't tend to agree with me. I believe they are commercialized, sponsored, or a friend of the rankings worked there or owned it. Either way, I have no investment other than good, new-fashioned pizza and to write about it. This journey, which my wife and daughter are a part of, is one of adventure. This means, well, that I have to do something adventurous. Adventurous like veggies, different meats, crusts, different toppings if offered. For this adventure we will choose some pepperoncinis, which I had to Google what they were, hamburger, for I am a pepperoni fan, and no extra dipping sauce, for that is cheating.

Here are the results:

Yes, this is a book with mom and dad in it, long story. 

Presentation: Nice! (not sure if you know what that means, it's just a good example of pizza.) First bite: First off, the Za was cut into squares, which is always a minus in my book. This said, the first bite had a good mix of all toppings, evenly distributed sauce, a good balance, even with the pepperoncinis. Conclusion: Sauce, nice and robust, a little sweet. The small crumbles of hamburger meat combined with the extra thin and therefore crispy pepperoni was a nice meat presentation (that's what she said). The crust seemed made in house, authentic, a little bumpy and "not perfect looking." The cheese had a nice flavor that balanced with the Pepperoncinis.

Overall grade: Good out of Awesome. Ranking system (not good, eh, good, really good, and cowabunga)

Minuses: A large is only 15 inches and costs around $23 due too added cream cheese. The cut of the pizza was square cut and those middle pieces had no crust to hold on to. My wife asked how that dense pizza could hold up if cut in the regular fashion? My answer, not my problem. Pizza engineers are to figure this one out. So, there it is. A pizza review from someone who had probably eaten more pizza by the time he was 15 than most adults. This makes me an expert of some sort.

Maybe I will do another one next week.