Photos courtesy of Ironwood Pizza
Every community has a neighborhood pizza joint that serves a good pie. Manlius has several pizza joints. And now, it also has Ironwood Pizza, which turns out excellent wood-fired, thin-crust pies.
Ironwood has been criticized in some quarters for a) not selling pizza by the slice and b) not offering delivery service. Owner John Freightenburgh, who got his start with the mobile “Pizza Rig’’ at area farmers markets and festivals, makes no apology for straying from the same-old same-old -- and why should he? Ironwood’s pizza is out of the ordinary. The mozzarella is as local as you can get, made fresh on site each day. If you’ve been to Italy or France and come home craving Euro-style pizza, you’re in for a treat.
We rate the wood-fired pizza at Ironwood right up there with our favorite wood-fired pizza in the Finger Lakes (and possibly the universe!), The Copper Oven.
THE VIBE: Iron plus wood – most of it hand-crafted by Freightenburgh -- equals industrial-chic decor. It’s dim in the dining room, but colorful, thanks to a massive graffiti wall mural. It’s also noisy, thanks to the hard surfaces and families and groups gathered around tables for four, six and larger. Intimate it’s not, but that’s OK.
THE MENU: Simple and straightforward. There are a
few starters (think caprese plate and bruschetta), a few salads and about a
dozen pizza choices, including a create-your-own option and weekly specials
like The Greek (shown right): Basil pesto, spinach,
house-made mozzarella, caramelized onions, kalamata olives, feta… Opa!
LIQUID ASSETS: Ironwood has a short wine list and an evolving lineup of beers on tap. We chose pints of Narragansett lager from Rhode Island mostly because we’ve never had it before and opportunity knocked. Two pints apiece, served in widemouth Mason jars, went down way easy – especially after seeing “Amour’’ a few doors down at The Manlius Art Cinema. Not the cheeriest cinematic fare!
THE FOOD: We shared the organic spinach salad tossed with mandarin oranges, almonds, dried cranberries and a refreshing apple cider vinaigrette dressing ($8) and the arugula pizza ($13). The crust is the star of the show here: It’s thin, crackling and slightly charred and smoky, topped with garlic-infused oil, strips of prosciutto, plenty of peppery arugula and freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. The toppings worked extremely well together, and we didn’t miss the heaviness that mozzarella can bring to the party.
WHAT’S A VEGETARIAN GOING TO FIND? Everything from simple pies (marinara; traditional Margherita) to an over-the-top one like the Vegetopia: Tomato sauce, garlic, fresh mozzarella, spinach, portabello mushrooms, caramelized onions, roasted red peppers, Roma tomato, etc. With all that, who needs meat?!
DESSERT: One choice: Homemade gelato ($3.75), in about six flavors, including hazelnut and red raspberry when we visited. We each hoarded a dish – no sharing. Yum.
THE DAMAGES: One shared salad, one shared pizza, two desserts and four draft beers came to about $50.
THE NEXT TIME: Maybe we’ll
skip pizza altogether, order salads and share the Mozzarella Spiral instead. It
combines prosciutto and fresh basil rolled Ironwood’s house-made
mozzarella, then drizzled with olive oil and balsamic reduction and served with
sliced Roma tomatoes and Italian bread from the wood-fired oven. The brunch pizzas,
served Sundays only, sound fabulous, too. Eggs, bacon, sausage and hash browns,
on a pizza crust? Sure. We’ll try anything once.
THE DETAILS: Ironwood is at 145 E. Seneca St., Manlius. Hours: 4 to 9 p.m. Monday-Wednesday, 4 to 10 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. Info: 315-744-8740 or 315-682-0042.
Can't wait to try it!
Posted by: Seth and MJ Kircher | 04/12/2013 at 12:50 AM