Grady's

Next stop on the pizza trail was Grady's Pizza and Subs at 6801 W. 12th St. Suite C Little Rock, AR 72204.

Now I have to say, I had high expectations for this place. It's been there like, practically forever. You just must be doing something right to last that long, right? And it's probably been ten years or so since I was there. We ordered the biggest Grady's Supreme on the menu, and while it was plenty to eat, it left a lot to be desired in the quality arena.

As we served ourselves up a slice to give our first taste, there was something that I just couldn't put my finger on that kinda bothered me about it. After my associate pointed out to me that the pizza was covered with little balls of sausage, I thought, yeah, that's it. It was like some kind of mass produced sausage sprinkles from a bag.

And then we bit into the doughy, mushy crust and I realized that this was going to be more of an ordeal than a treat. I started to eat the toppings off of the crust. It was then that the little balls of sausage really started to annoy me. There was, bar none, 4 ounces of sausage balls to every half ounce of each of the other ingredients. It was at that point that I started nibbling off the little crispy bits around the edge of the crust.

Like I said, they must be doing something right to keep going so long. But I can tell you right now, it ain't pizza.

Pizza Cafe

1517 Rebsamen Park Rd
Little Rock, AR 72202-1857
(501) 664-6133

Third stop in our tour of the pizza joints. This pretty much clears out the Riverdale, Stifft Station areas of town so that we can move farther afield. The Pizza Cafe is a small little pizza shop nestled in with the Faded Rose and whatever that other restaurant is this week. They've been around for a long time so you have to figure they have something going for them more than just a large deck.

And since today was a bit chilly for deck sitting, we got there early for lunch and snagged an inside table. Keeping with the parameters of the experiment, we ordered the deluxe pizza. This consisted of a better than average chewy crust, red sauce and a rather chinzy sprinkling of meat and veggie toppings. If there's a complaint, this would be the only one. Well, that and it could have had a bit more sauce for my taste.

I found the flavor to be good and we both agreed this was the best of the three we've tried so far. But still not the holy grail of pizza.