Hey guys! Laura here. Since starting New England Bites, Mom and I have made a lot of friends. Food friends. You know the type - they're always looking to try new restaurants, different foods, and aren't afraid to drive for it. That being said, we've decided to introduce a new feature - the guest reviewer! Our first guest review came to light because I decided to be an ass and cancel pizza-eating plans that I had with my friend Scott. He decided to do his own write up, and judging from what he had to say, I'm kinda glad I missed it, lol. Actually I'd still like to try it, and I'm glad that I won't get as lost as he did. Thanks for the review, Scott!
January 20, 2011
Hello there New England Bites readers! My name is Scott and I am a friend of Laura’s. If you are wondering why I am writing this for New England Bites, you'll understand by the end. Here goes…. I was watching “Phantom Gourmet” on a Saturday morning and a particular item caught my eye: a pizza topped with all my favorite appetizer toppings! I called Laura and said this has to be a job for NEBs and we planned a trip to Peabody, MA (which is not local to us) to try this interesting new pizza that PG recommended. We tried a few times to set a date down, but schedules and weather kept interfering. Finally the day was set and we were going…or so I thought. Laura had to cancel at the last minute. I decided that I was too looking forward to trying this, and that I was just going to go anyway because I was all prepared and had gassed-up the car and updated my iPod for the drive, so I went with my friend Greg. So here’s our experience…apologize for the length in advance:
We left my house around 2 p.m. on a Thursday. Mapquest said it would take an hour and twenty minutes to get there. HA! First Mapquest gave me wrong information. It said Exit 25 off 95/128 (Rte.114/Andover Street). This was not correct as Exit 25 goes to the Mass Pike, so we busted out Greg’s GPS. Back on track, right…nope. I sat in traffic for 45 minutes around Exit 30 to get to Exit 31. When we got moving, I called ahead to order my pizza because the website says specifically that it takes a while to make and you should call ahead. So I’m thinking I’m about 30 minutes away and that should be good. I place the order and the girl informs me that it will be ready in 15 minutes!!! Crap. I decided to just plug along and not think about it getting cold. After all, I’d only be there about 10-15 minutes later….NOPE! The GPS had other plans and about 25 minutes later it took me to the wrong Pizza place on Bourbon Street – though Bourbon Street is in the title of the restaurant, it’s on Sylvan Street – which is nowhere near Bourbon Street - makes no sense to me either, just the way it is. It then takes me back on the highway and off at another exit and down several backroads to 10 Sylvan Street….in Danvers! A cute little purple house with white trim and a pink door, but no pizza in sight! No matter what we tried, the GPS would not acknowledge that address in Peabody. This continued for another two hours!!! I was driving around everywhere! I called the place to let them know and they tried to help navigate me, but they didn’t know where I was. I finally found an exit for Rte 114/Andover Street and I took it (It's Exit 47, thank you Mapquest for not being even close!). The GPS keeps yelling at me and trying to guide me back to 10 Sylvan Street in Danvers. Then my cell phone rings, and it’s the owner of the restaurant calling me from his home! He lives in my area and the employees called him to have him help guide me. With his help, I found the place – over 2 hours after calling in the order, it’s now past 5 p.m.
I had hoped that they might offer to make a fresh pizza since they knew I was coming a long way and knew I was trying to get there for some time…No. The girl behind the counter, Johanna, informed me that the ovens keep them warm and it’ll be fine. So I paid and sat down to eat. I ordered the Juggernaut Pizza for Greg and I to share, which is a standard pizza topped with unique toppings of Chicken Fingers, Mozzarella Sticks and balls of Fried Mac & Cheese along with slices of Pepperoni and extra cheese. PG had highly recommended it, and I’d never heard of such a thing, so I was intrigued. It also comes with a half-serious health warning – that Tom’s is not responsible for any health issues related to eating it – lol. I also ordered two dessert pizzas, another unique thing recommended by PG. They have a few flavors, but Greg decided to try the Apple Crumb and I got the Cherry Crumb. Even though I specified that we were dining in, they had packed it up for take-out, so I had to ask for plates and silverware to bring to our table to eat.
THE VERDICT: I really wanted to love this pizza, but it left me cold. Or maybe that’s because it was lukewarm. Don’t get me wrong, it was good, but it didn’t knock my socks off as I’d hoped. Maybe it would be better fresh, but it was disappointing considering what it took to get there! Greg agreed that it just wasn’t all that special despite the unique toppings. Sorry the picture has two slices missing, but after 3 plus hours of driving, we were starved and couldn’t wait. Also, you can now see how thick, or not as thick as I expected, the pizza was. It seemed more like a deep dish pizza on PG and the website’s description. As for the dessert pizzas, they were delicious! We each tried a slice of each others and though both were good, but we agreed that the Cherry was far superior to the Apple. And these were good even though they weren’t hot!
The total came to:
No tip needed, thankfully.
Tom’s Bourbon Street Pizza Company is located at 10 Sylvan Street, Peabody, MA (on a side street off Rte 114 near the North Shore Mall behind Walgreen’s and Petco, in case you try to find it yourself). It’s a small little place with a few tables and chairs, and some stool seating along the windows. They have several unique pizzas and dessert pizzas, along with standard pizzas, salads and sandwiches. They also offer catering. While I would not recommend driving out of your way like I did to try this, if you are in the area already it may be worth a try. The food was good despite the bad experience and the staff was very friendly and helpful. They have only one unisex bathroom in the back, but it was kept very clean and tidy. A little pricey too for pizza, so be prepared with your wallet! And thus is why the review comes from me, because I am not making this drive again anytime soon (and probably neither is Laura after my experience), but I thought NEBs still deserved to get the scoop because Laura was supposed to be there! A fresh pizza may make all the difference in dining here, but it’s a long drive for us who can get better pizza closer to home. Thanks for reading!
Hours of operation are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday. Delivery is available to the Danvers and Peabody areas.
********************
10 Sylvan St.
Peabody, MA 01960
(978) 536-9915
January 20, 2011
Hello there New England Bites readers! My name is Scott and I am a friend of Laura’s. If you are wondering why I am writing this for New England Bites, you'll understand by the end. Here goes…. I was watching “Phantom Gourmet” on a Saturday morning and a particular item caught my eye: a pizza topped with all my favorite appetizer toppings! I called Laura and said this has to be a job for NEBs and we planned a trip to Peabody, MA (which is not local to us) to try this interesting new pizza that PG recommended. We tried a few times to set a date down, but schedules and weather kept interfering. Finally the day was set and we were going…or so I thought. Laura had to cancel at the last minute. I decided that I was too looking forward to trying this, and that I was just going to go anyway because I was all prepared and had gassed-up the car and updated my iPod for the drive, so I went with my friend Greg. So here’s our experience…apologize for the length in advance:
We left my house around 2 p.m. on a Thursday. Mapquest said it would take an hour and twenty minutes to get there. HA! First Mapquest gave me wrong information. It said Exit 25 off 95/128 (Rte.114/Andover Street). This was not correct as Exit 25 goes to the Mass Pike, so we busted out Greg’s GPS. Back on track, right…nope. I sat in traffic for 45 minutes around Exit 30 to get to Exit 31. When we got moving, I called ahead to order my pizza because the website says specifically that it takes a while to make and you should call ahead. So I’m thinking I’m about 30 minutes away and that should be good. I place the order and the girl informs me that it will be ready in 15 minutes!!! Crap. I decided to just plug along and not think about it getting cold. After all, I’d only be there about 10-15 minutes later….NOPE! The GPS had other plans and about 25 minutes later it took me to the wrong Pizza place on Bourbon Street – though Bourbon Street is in the title of the restaurant, it’s on Sylvan Street – which is nowhere near Bourbon Street - makes no sense to me either, just the way it is. It then takes me back on the highway and off at another exit and down several backroads to 10 Sylvan Street….in Danvers! A cute little purple house with white trim and a pink door, but no pizza in sight! No matter what we tried, the GPS would not acknowledge that address in Peabody. This continued for another two hours!!! I was driving around everywhere! I called the place to let them know and they tried to help navigate me, but they didn’t know where I was. I finally found an exit for Rte 114/Andover Street and I took it (It's Exit 47, thank you Mapquest for not being even close!). The GPS keeps yelling at me and trying to guide me back to 10 Sylvan Street in Danvers. Then my cell phone rings, and it’s the owner of the restaurant calling me from his home! He lives in my area and the employees called him to have him help guide me. With his help, I found the place – over 2 hours after calling in the order, it’s now past 5 p.m.
I had hoped that they might offer to make a fresh pizza since they knew I was coming a long way and knew I was trying to get there for some time…No. The girl behind the counter, Johanna, informed me that the ovens keep them warm and it’ll be fine. So I paid and sat down to eat. I ordered the Juggernaut Pizza for Greg and I to share, which is a standard pizza topped with unique toppings of Chicken Fingers, Mozzarella Sticks and balls of Fried Mac & Cheese along with slices of Pepperoni and extra cheese. PG had highly recommended it, and I’d never heard of such a thing, so I was intrigued. It also comes with a half-serious health warning – that Tom’s is not responsible for any health issues related to eating it – lol. I also ordered two dessert pizzas, another unique thing recommended by PG. They have a few flavors, but Greg decided to try the Apple Crumb and I got the Cherry Crumb. Even though I specified that we were dining in, they had packed it up for take-out, so I had to ask for plates and silverware to bring to our table to eat.
The Juggernaut
Dessert Pies
THE VERDICT: I really wanted to love this pizza, but it left me cold. Or maybe that’s because it was lukewarm. Don’t get me wrong, it was good, but it didn’t knock my socks off as I’d hoped. Maybe it would be better fresh, but it was disappointing considering what it took to get there! Greg agreed that it just wasn’t all that special despite the unique toppings. Sorry the picture has two slices missing, but after 3 plus hours of driving, we were starved and couldn’t wait. Also, you can now see how thick, or not as thick as I expected, the pizza was. It seemed more like a deep dish pizza on PG and the website’s description. As for the dessert pizzas, they were delicious! We each tried a slice of each others and though both were good, but we agreed that the Cherry was far superior to the Apple. And these were good even though they weren’t hot!
The total came to:
1 - Large Juggernaut Pizza $15.95
1 - Personal Apple Crumb - 4.95
1 - Personal Cherry Crumb - 4.95
2 - 20 oz. Diet Pepsi - 3.38
Subtotal - $29.23
Tax - 2.05
TOTAL = $31.28
No tip needed, thankfully.
Tom’s Bourbon Street Pizza Company is located at 10 Sylvan Street, Peabody, MA (on a side street off Rte 114 near the North Shore Mall behind Walgreen’s and Petco, in case you try to find it yourself). It’s a small little place with a few tables and chairs, and some stool seating along the windows. They have several unique pizzas and dessert pizzas, along with standard pizzas, salads and sandwiches. They also offer catering. While I would not recommend driving out of your way like I did to try this, if you are in the area already it may be worth a try. The food was good despite the bad experience and the staff was very friendly and helpful. They have only one unisex bathroom in the back, but it was kept very clean and tidy. A little pricey too for pizza, so be prepared with your wallet! And thus is why the review comes from me, because I am not making this drive again anytime soon (and probably neither is Laura after my experience), but I thought NEBs still deserved to get the scoop because Laura was supposed to be there! A fresh pizza may make all the difference in dining here, but it’s a long drive for us who can get better pizza closer to home. Thanks for reading!
Hours of operation are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday. Delivery is available to the Danvers and Peabody areas.
