Arris’ Pizza
Arris Pizza
5 Locations in Missouri, plus a location in Oklahoma
115 W High Street (Location visited)
Jefferson City, MO
Since I have been travelling “a lot” in the last six months (compared to the last 5 or so years), every time I stop at a new city, I ask the locals for something unique of the region. When I was in Baltimore, I went for crab cakes; in Merrillville, due to its proximity to Chicago, deep dish pizza; in Philadelphia, cheese steak; and so on.
When I was in Jefferson City, I asked my usual question and, at first, they were bewildered. In a way, they couldn’t think of something “local”. And I won’t blame them, some places with such a massive influx of people, it becomes a melting pot and no cuisine becomes “dominant”. And I can easily relate that, since there is no such thing as a “local” dish in Vancouver. Oddly, when I asked for a restaurant location (at that point “anything works”), I was able to find one of the regional “specialties”. And that is the subject of today’s post, Arris’ Pizza
It seems Arris’ Pizza is a local institution. After it was first mentioned, almost everybody agreed on that suggestion. Who am I to question the locals? Anyway, a 10 Km or so drive it was on a chilly, windy, dark night so it better be good!
On Sunday’s random post, I mentioned about condiments and here is the one found in Arris’ Pizza’s tables. One thing I found “odd” was the presence of artificial sweeteners by “default”. I mean, I understand they would provide it if you had coffee or tea at the end of the meal… However, I think I found out when a nearby table asked for iced tea and the waitress asked if they wanted it sweetened or unsweetened.
As for the food, when I asked (my clients) what they would order, they did disagree a little bit; however, there was a constant: their Greek salad. Again, whom am I to disagree? And here it is:
I will admit it right away: this is the oddest “Greek” salad I ever had. The ones I have had in other places are mostly cucumber and tomatoes, plus other veggies, like green peppers, onions and olives, and, of course, feta cheese and olive oil. However, as you can see in the picture above, there was too much iceberg lettuce for my liking. But, the cheese/dressing used was able to detract the blandness of the iceberg lettuce thanks to its pungency/tanginess. Regardless, I was disappointed. As for the “main”, I ordered a pizza.
Why pizza? It just happen that there is such thing as St. Louis style pizza (on the same lines of Chicago or New York style pizza). From what I was able to gather, rather than mozzarella, it uses a blend of other cheeses (provolone, swiss and white cheddar), not to mention the crust tend to be on the crunchy side. As for the one I ordered, I chose the House pizza which has “ground beef, mushrooms, red onions, green peppers, pepperoni, cotto salami, and our Greek sausage“. Before I continue, notice something strange about the pizza above? For example, the slits? Yes, it was not cut into wedges like the one most people is used to (or at least I am); rather it is cut into squares. Again, it seems to be a local thing – so long and “forgotten” that, when I asked why, nobody from the staff knew.
As for the pizza itself, I found it strange. In a way, I am used to have some acidity from the tomato sauce; however, I couldn’t really taste it from this one. Before anybody comments “but, what about ‘white’ pizza?” Well, true but, in that case, I am expecting it not to have that tomato acidity. Here, I did not find it. Notice, I am not calling it bad; it was different. As for the rest of the pizza, there was a good balance from the ingredients. One thing that I think they could have improved was the type of mushroom – like using fresh rather than canned. Despite it was covered by the cheese, after eating so much mushroom, I could tell just by the texture.
In the end, I couldn’t finish it and packed half of it to go (yeah, my hotel room had a fridge). I was also given these two chocolates. Overall, I can’t say I love it; however, I can’t say I don’t like it either. Probably if I was served more of this, I might learn to appreciate it the same way the locals do. Unfortunately, I don’t think any place here in Vancouver serve them. Still I enjoyed the experience and certainly would give it another chance.
I’ve never had a pizza that was cut into square wedges, either. I’ve only seen it on blogs!
Hm… so I guess the pizza wasn’t too fantastic for you? how long will you be staying in MO?
Pearl, I won’t say it wasn’t too fantastic, rather it was the fact it caught me off guard compared to what I am used to. But, now that I know better, I would certainly look at this from a different perspective. I stayed 4 nights in MO. Yes, that means a couple of more posts!
There are a few places around Edmonton that cut up their pizza in squares, but it always surprises when I open the box. From the picture it looks almost like the cheese was melted from slices, rather than shredded, as it covers almost everything equally. They are definitely liberal with the cheese.
I was at greek restaurant last year and they offered two greek salads; one with lettuce and one without. Both had different names but unfortunately I can’t remember why there was a difference. Damn, now I’m getting hungry – you and your amazing photos.
Raidar, you brought up a good point: this place is Greek, not Italian. However, I have had pizzas made in Greek restaurants somewhere else and they were similar to the Italian ones (crust type and usage of tomato sauce). If you can tell me the difference (regarding the salads), let me know!
I wasn’t going to have pizza for dinner, but now you’ve made me want pizza.
Having lived 1/2 my life in the southern US and 1/2 in New York city before coming to Vancouver, I can say that most restaurants in the south serve an option of sweet or unsweet tea. (I almost never saw pre-sweetened tea offered in NY or any other northeastern city).
And it seems 99% of folks in the south like sweet tea (and I mean tooth-ache levels of sweet – I’m pretty sure there’s a tie here to the toothless redneck stereotype). So for diabetics and others off sugar, the assumption seems to be that a person would order unsweet tea, then add buckets of faux-sweetner to achieve the “normal” result. So maybe to save the waitstaff the “obvious” chore of having to fetch sweetners with each drink, they just leave it on the table. I guess this may apply to Missouri as well.
I once took my Georgia-raised father to a high-end Japanese restaurant in Midtown NYC, where he asked our very confused waiter for sweet-n-low to put in his green tea. I’m pretty sure the poor guy had to dig it out of another staff member’s purse, while the rest of our group hung our heads from the shame. When my dad started eating his “safe” dish of chicken teriyaki with a knife and fork (also specially requested), we decided no more Japanese for him. Now I know why the Applebee’s in Times Square is always busy with tourists, despite NYC have some of the best and most eclectic local dining in the world…
Vox, thanks for your insightful comments! I have a good idea of what you went through. Once, I took my parents to a Lebanese restaurant (as per my sister’s suggestion – the restaurant, not the take-the-for-dinner part) and I regretted it as well. They kept making faces during the whole dinner, which meant they did not really like it. However, since I took the trouble of flying down there (they don’t live in Vancouver), they did not have the heart to tell me…