Southside Flying Pizza

Southside Flying Pizza

Southside Flying Pizza is the kind of pizza joint that announces itself with the message that even in the pizza-happy environs of South Congress, it’s a player. And who am I to disagree? The first day they delivered to our office down South Congress they made a bunch of new fans, me included.

This is one of those pizza places that forgoes the usual “aren’t we cool” pretense and directs its energy toward the food and service. And that’s good.

The service is cordial and efficient. Ditto for the delivery guys.

I usually forget about the appetizers and dig straight into the pizza menu. For those who care about preambles to pizza, try the either the small Caesar or Spinach salads. They’re fresh and they don’t taste like so many of those salads that exist solely because someone says, “Hey, we should offer some salads.” The sandwiches will never define Southside but they are nonetheless pretty good. I like the Hoagie. It reminds me of Wooster St. in New Haven. And the Spinach Calzone has a nice little kick to it that does a good job of embellishing the calzone genre.

But let us delay no further as we move to the main subject: Apizza!

Let’s start with the Southsider! This is one of those abundanza pizzas but the sheer bulk of the elements: chopped peppers and onions, mushrooms and Canadian bacon, a lovely Italian sausage along with pepperoni and bell peppers, only enhance the flavors instead of, as is so often the case, overwhelm them! I like the texture of the crust as well. And it passes the all-important night in the fridge test.! And then you’ve got to get your mouth around the aptly named Athena. There are other pizzas around the city that feature red onions, spinach, tomatoes, kalamata olives and feta cheese but few that conjure up this kind of taste and texture. This is a serious pie! Then there’s the oft requested gluten-free side of the menu. Southside’s offering on this front is the very tasty Zygmont. This consists of spinach, roma tomatoes, portabello mushrooms, goat cheese and romano cheese. Southside partners with Whole Foods on the crust on this pie: no problem there, just meeting a need and that’s called attention to the customer. And you can roll your own pizza here with no problemos. There are an abundance of mix and match toppings. And the sauces don’t have that seared flavor that smirks of too many hours in the freezer.

Southside Flying Pizza has one of the largest delivery areas of any Austin pizzeria as we mentioned earlier. So put your seat belt on and prepare for take off. And I can tell you for sure that you’ll have a smooth landing as well.