This summer, when I was walking around Princeton on my way to get frozen yogurt with Mike and his family, we passed a sign that advertised a forthcoming location of Naked Pizza on Nassau Street. Like a lot of other trendy restaurants these days, they were advertising whole ingredients, a green business model, and food that was good for your person and your environment. I made a mental note to check out the restaurant when it opened, and yesterday, just before getting back to DC, Mike and I finally gave Naked Pizza a try.
Naked Pizza certainly uses a lot of buzz words in their promotional materials to attract a health-conscious individual such as myself. They use ten grains (including oats, brown rice, buckwheat, quinoa, amaranth, teff, spelt, tapioca, and two kinds of wheat) in their crusts. Their cheese is "100% natural, rGBH-free, real Wisconsin mozzarella." All their meats are growth hormone and antibiotic free. And, unlike other pizzas, which they describe as "big donut[s] slathered with tomato sauce," Naked Pizza doesn't "add sugar, high fructose corn syrup or hydrogenated oil" to any of their ingredients. Sounds good to me!
More than just providing trustworthy, nutritious pizza, Naked Pizza also strives to mobilize the 50 billion dollar pizza industry toward a healthier goal, what they call the "world's largest grassroots health movement." Not only are consumers supposed to feel good after eating it, they're supposed to feel good about eating it.
Mike and I were a little daunted when we first got to the store- everything is so shiny and the menu is astronomically large (it takes up a whole wall!), with create-your-own and tried-and-true options.
After much deliberation, Mike and I decided on the Superbiotic (veggies galore). We were considering the Sonoran (chicken, peppers, mushrooms, onions), but I wasn't in a very meaty mood and tons of veggies was much more suited to my preferences. We also ordered Naked Pizza's version of Cheesey Bread, which comes garnished with basil on top of a mix of mozzarella and cheddar cheeses.
We played with the iPads they had in store while waiting for our dinner, and headed home. The pizza smelled great on the ride and we couldn't wait to eat it!
Our food came in super adorable boxes that lauded us on our choice of eats. Mike and I couldn't resist calling each other "friendo" for the rest of our evening. The main event, however, was the food!
The pizza was delicious and light. I had inhaled three slices before I even realized what had happened, because I didn't feel like I had decimated so much pizza in such a short period of time. All the vegetables on the pie were absolutely fresh and contributed their own flavor profiles to the overall pizza experience. However, it isn't quite the same pizza I grew up eating in New Jersey.
The cheesey bread was good, but didn't meet my expectations. The marinara sauce was a great compliment to the bread, but I could have done without the basil garnish; I thought it overwhelmed the cheese flavors. While my brain understood that what I was consuming was a much healthier alternative than what I used to order during late nights at college, my stomach really wanted that greasy, salty, garlicky taste that only awful chain pizzerias can offer. To avoid this confusion in the future, I'll probably stick with just the pizza- less money, less needless calories, more satisfaction.
This morning I "skipped the pizza hangover," as their boxes and promotional material suggested I would.
Overall, Naked Pizza is definitely delicious, and if I had to choose between this and something like Domino's or Papa John's (and money wasn't an object) I would definitely choose Naked. But if it were standing up to one of the many fine family-owned pizzerias in the NJ/NY area, I think I'd lean toward the less healthy option more often than not.
The other concern for me is Naked Pizza's pricepoint; if Naked Pizza had popped up in Bryn Mawr and it was finals week, would I order a 10" personal pie for 12.99, no matter how good it made me feel, when Dominos offered the same sized pie for several dollars cheaper? Unlikely. While yuppie twentysomethings with jobs might be able to afford their pizza "naked" I'm not sure if the target pizza-eating demographic can.
I do wish Naked Pizza well on their journey, though, and I hope the Naked Pizza phenomenon catches on- I was surprised to find that Naked Pizza isn't a local startup; they have a serious list of locations spanning from coast to coast in the US and even internationally, so check them out! There might be one near you. Whenever I want a healthy pizza in the DC area I'll know where to look.
Naked Pizza certainly uses a lot of buzz words in their promotional materials to attract a health-conscious individual such as myself. They use ten grains (including oats, brown rice, buckwheat, quinoa, amaranth, teff, spelt, tapioca, and two kinds of wheat) in their crusts. Their cheese is "100% natural, rGBH-free, real Wisconsin mozzarella." All their meats are growth hormone and antibiotic free. And, unlike other pizzas, which they describe as "big donut[s] slathered with tomato sauce," Naked Pizza doesn't "add sugar, high fructose corn syrup or hydrogenated oil" to any of their ingredients. Sounds good to me!
More than just providing trustworthy, nutritious pizza, Naked Pizza also strives to mobilize the 50 billion dollar pizza industry toward a healthier goal, what they call the "world's largest grassroots health movement." Not only are consumers supposed to feel good after eating it, they're supposed to feel good about eating it.
Mike and I were a little daunted when we first got to the store- everything is so shiny and the menu is astronomically large (it takes up a whole wall!), with create-your-own and tried-and-true options.
After much deliberation, Mike and I decided on the Superbiotic (veggies galore). We were considering the Sonoran (chicken, peppers, mushrooms, onions), but I wasn't in a very meaty mood and tons of veggies was much more suited to my preferences. We also ordered Naked Pizza's version of Cheesey Bread, which comes garnished with basil on top of a mix of mozzarella and cheddar cheeses.
We played with the iPads they had in store while waiting for our dinner, and headed home. The pizza smelled great on the ride and we couldn't wait to eat it!
Our food came in super adorable boxes that lauded us on our choice of eats. Mike and I couldn't resist calling each other "friendo" for the rest of our evening. The main event, however, was the food!
The pizza was delicious and light. I had inhaled three slices before I even realized what had happened, because I didn't feel like I had decimated so much pizza in such a short period of time. All the vegetables on the pie were absolutely fresh and contributed their own flavor profiles to the overall pizza experience. However, it isn't quite the same pizza I grew up eating in New Jersey.
The cheesey bread was good, but didn't meet my expectations. The marinara sauce was a great compliment to the bread, but I could have done without the basil garnish; I thought it overwhelmed the cheese flavors. While my brain understood that what I was consuming was a much healthier alternative than what I used to order during late nights at college, my stomach really wanted that greasy, salty, garlicky taste that only awful chain pizzerias can offer. To avoid this confusion in the future, I'll probably stick with just the pizza- less money, less needless calories, more satisfaction.
This morning I "skipped the pizza hangover," as their boxes and promotional material suggested I would.
Overall, Naked Pizza is definitely delicious, and if I had to choose between this and something like Domino's or Papa John's (and money wasn't an object) I would definitely choose Naked. But if it were standing up to one of the many fine family-owned pizzerias in the NJ/NY area, I think I'd lean toward the less healthy option more often than not.
The other concern for me is Naked Pizza's pricepoint; if Naked Pizza had popped up in Bryn Mawr and it was finals week, would I order a 10" personal pie for 12.99, no matter how good it made me feel, when Dominos offered the same sized pie for several dollars cheaper? Unlikely. While yuppie twentysomethings with jobs might be able to afford their pizza "naked" I'm not sure if the target pizza-eating demographic can.
I do wish Naked Pizza well on their journey, though, and I hope the Naked Pizza phenomenon catches on- I was surprised to find that Naked Pizza isn't a local startup; they have a serious list of locations spanning from coast to coast in the US and even internationally, so check them out! There might be one near you. Whenever I want a healthy pizza in the DC area I'll know where to look.
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