BB’s Pizza, Auburn

BB’s Pizza is rather new, opened in 2010 on Auburn’s west side (250 Genesee Street). It would be nice to say that I found this place by accident when I was in Auburn on business, but the truth is that I had some help. A friend of mine from Auburn has been bragging on BB’s Pizza for a while now; his family enjoys some every Friday night. It was interesting to note that BB’s is located in the same building as another pizza restaurant, and across the street from yet another! There are two, very small tables inside, and one outside. However, I would hesitate to say that you could eat in. Parking is easy right on Genesee Street, and delivery is available. Closed Sunday.

The menu lists a generally typical selection of pizzeria food, but one thing really caught my eye: garbage pizza! It is described as “everything you can imagine on a pizza.” BB’s Facebook page has a post which mentions that the garbage pizza weighs in at 6 to 8 pounds! Someday I hope to give it a try, but I have a feeling that I’ll want to edit the toppings a little, since some things just do not belong on pizza (such as anchovies, broccoli, pineapple). Another interesting comment from the Facebook page: No freezer, no microwave, everything is fresh.

A good selection of pizza slices was available when we stopped in at the tail end of lunch today (yes, this review is being posted on the same day), and I chose two slices: pepperoni, and onion-pepper-mushroom. After a brief re-heat, we headed outside to enjoy our slices. This pizza fits squarely in the category of thin, Neapolitan, NY Style, or whatever you’d like to call it. It was about 3/16″ thin, increasing to about 3/4″ at the rim, baked directly on the oven stone. There was a pleasant crispiness in every bite, with just the right amount of chewiness. The crust interior did not have quite the complexity of structure that I have seen on the very best crusts, but the flavor did not suffer from it.

This sauce had a good deal of personality. First of all, there was enough that you could actually taste it! It was bright red, generally smooth texture, moderately spiced with visible flakes, and had a mix of sweet, acidic and salty notes. Actual tomato flavor was a little subdued. If I could change one thing about it, I would drop the salt level just a tad. Cheese was Grande, which is usually pretty good, but tends to have some oil separation under certain cooking conditions. As you’ll notice in the photo, the pepperoni slice was much more orange and oily, whereas the veggie slice had cheese that was still white and not oily. The amount of cheese was in good balance with the other ingredients.

Thinking back to the Facebook comment about “no freezer, no microwave, everything fresh,” I was happy to notice the toppings were indeed fresh and tasty. I’m sorry that I didn’t have a slice with sausage, because it would be interesting to see what was used. Sometimes I would prefer a little more toppings than what this slice had. All things considered, though, I think it was about right.

Overall, this pizza has a lot to recommend it, and virtually nothing to criticize. Every bite produced a high amount of “wow!” factor, with a great confluence of tastes. Everything was in balance, and every bite had just the right amount of crispy crunch. You will eat every last bite! My only complaint is with the sauce – the salt level was a little higher than I prefer, and it could benefit from a little chunkiness and more fresh tomato taste. But keep my gripes in perspective, because I still highly recommend it, and give it a Pizza Geek rating of a very solid 4.5 out of 5 slices. If I have the opportunity to return and try a fresh pie, I have a feeling we’d be looking at a 4.75.

Summary – Pros: exceptional taste. Cons: eat-in really not practical.

What do YOU think? How does BB’s compare to other Auburn pizzerias? Please leave a comment and let us know.

Crust: *****
Sauce: ****
Cheese: *****
Toppings: *****

Overall:

BB’s Pizza, 250 Genesee Street, Auburn – 315-704-0227

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