Pizza Fusion: Eco Friendly and Pretty Darn Good

I’ll get this out of the way right up front. I had my doubts. Yeah, yeah, organic. Yeah, yeah, local. Yeah, yeah, hybrid delivery vehicles and old Levi’s masquerading as insulation. All part and parcel of this new “green business” known as Pizza Fusion.

A small chain with only four locations at the moment, three of which are in Florida, I can honestly say I was expecting to leave disappointed. And, I’m happy to report, my expectations were greatly exceeded.

Located on route 8 in Gibsonia, not far from the Turnpike exit for Butler Valley and in the same plaza as one of the relatively new Atria's outposts, Pizza Fusion makes a good pie, even if it is oval.

We ordered a large, half-plain (for the kids), half with sausage and roasted red peppers (for the nonkids). The pizza was thin, with a slightly crisp crust that offered just the right amount of chew. The sauce, just a touch too sweet, the cheese, and the toppings all were obviously of above average quality. The roasted red peppers were organic, the sausage was not.

Overall, an enjoyable pizza. We’ll be back. In the meantime, though, some other observations:

1) Pizza Fusion offers beer and wine, all of which are organic. My wife and I both had a pale ale from Peak Brewing, which wasn’t bad. My personal opinion, however, is that, ecologically speaking, local can be as important as organic, so it would be nice if some local beers of a certain quality (cough, cough… any from Penn Brewery) were offered.

2) Some of the pizza options are, to my mind, unnecessary, bordering on the irrational. A “surf and turf” pizza with steak, shrimp, and lobster? It’s bad enough that there is a BBQ Chicken pizza on the menu (abomination!), but a pizza laden with steak and lobster? For $48? I don’t know what that is, but it ain’t pizza.

3) The service was pretty slow. But this was day two for this restaurant. I was amazed the service wasn’t worse.

4) Finally, our bill was over $40, which most people might say is expensive for dinner at a pizza joint (anticipating a long wait for our pizza, we also got some bread sticks for the kids).

I’m not complaining. I understand that quality ingredients cost more. But when you can get a few (nasty) pizzas from the various national chains for less than $20, that kind of price is a hard sell for those who equate organic and anything “green” with pot-smoking hippies and bleeding heart liberals from San Francisco, and who actually think Domino's is an acceptable meal.