Pizza Style: Bar
Venue Style: Sit Down/Family Restaurant
Food Orders: Cheese, Pepperoni with Meat Sauce, Kevin Kiely
Beverage Choice: Domestic Beers
Lg Cheese Pizza: (10″) $8.50
Attendees: Boboli & Celeste
Guests: None

Holy Trinity (Oregano, Parmigiana, and Crushed Red Pepper): Available but not on the table.

It’s been about a year since we visited Town Spa – for the Guy’s first review of “Pub Pies” – so we decided to head into Brockton to the original Cape Cod Cafe.  As with Town Spa, and with Lynnwood Café, Cape Cod Cafe is a legend in the Pub style pizza world of New England.  While all claim to have the best pub pizzas – they can’t all be #1 – so we have taken the challenge to rank them.  Our official Town Spa review was left without a score because we felt it was only fair to judge these particular pizzas against each other and not against other types of pizzas.  Since the Pub style pizza is prepared and cooked a different way we thought it was best to let the style hold up against its competitors on their own.  Cape Cod is in the heart of Brockton, where it’s been for over 60 years, and is a very nice family atmosphere.  They have an extensive menu, many beers on tap, and unlike Town Spa – they accept credit cards.  The atmosphere at Cape Cod Café was very friendly and very homey.  Everyone seemed to know each other and that made us feel like we were in a family establishment.  The patrons knew the bartender’s names, and the Café was even offering 10% of the proceeds from the night to a local school.  This is a great start – but we haven’t gotten to the pizza yet.  One other note before we dive into the pizzas themselves – only two of the Guys were in attendance for this trip, so the reviews may be a little lopsided, but we are confident that we have the best interest in the group in mind and that our review will hold up throughout the group.  Now…on to the orders.

The Slice Guys ordered 3 pies in total.  1 Classic Cheese, 1 Pepperoni with Meat sauce, and 1 Kevin Kiely.

• The classic cheese we ordered as is, with no changes. It was good – perhaps not great.  We found the crust to be a little thicker than we anticipated and not as crispy as we would have liked.  The ingredients were classic pub style – nothing fancy, but consistent.  We felt that the overall feel and taste of the pie was closer to that of a Greek pizza.
• Pepperoni with Meat sauce (Crispy with burnt ends): After our quick order of the cheese we decided to inquire a little with the server (who was wonderful – thanks Janice). We were told you can order the pizzas a few different ways: Regular, Crispy, Well Done, and with/without burnt ends (a little extra sauce that touches the pan while it cooks and makes a thin layer of burnt yumminess all around the edge of the pizza).  Armed with these new options we decided to order the next one crispy with burnt ends.  The pepperoni with plentiful and the meat sauce was a great addition to the pizza without overdoing it with a meat lovers style pizza (which is also available).  The addition of the crispy and burnt ends took the flavors up a few levels.  The pizza was more firm and held together nicely – and the burnt ends is just a great flavor that adds a lot to the pizza.
• The Kevin Kiely, crispy with burnt ends. We decided to stick with the crispy and burnt ends approach again with the Kevin Kiely (shaved steak with red peppers and drizzled with alfredo sauce).  This pizza was a take on a cheesesteak, and the guys felt it was well executed.  We were reluctant at first, but the flavors balanced very well together and nothing was over the top.

As with our review of Town Spa, with pub pizza, there isn’t a lot of nuance between the pies other than toppings sitting on top.  The Kevin Kiely surprised us slightly – but the canvass is still the same pub style.  We highly recommend going the crispy route, and adding the burnt ends is a must.  Consistency and execution is an 8 out of 8.  Where the numbers drop off for is freshness of ingredients.  The Guys both felt that Town Spa edged out Cape Cod in overall execution, feel, and flavor.  That being said – it’s really just a toss-up on which you prefer.  Ask 100 people which is better and 50 will go one way and 50 another – it all comes down to personal preference sometimes/what you grew up with.  But for the Guys – if we had to choose one over the other – we would head to the Spa.

Important takeaway: Always order Pub Pizzas Crispy with Burnt edges. We know this is common knowledge for people of the northern Rt. 24 corridor but for first timers this is a must. 

Slice-o-meter: Pending until all comparables are visited. (The Lynwood Cafe still to go)

Tagged: Bar Pizza