Adam & Eats: Larry’s Pizza

Editor’s note: Adam Brandt is a graduate from the Cobra Kai School of Culinary Callousness, where he received their highest award, the Red Apron of Merciless Eating. Aside from eating and talking about eating, he makes pots, paintings, prints, books, photographs, and generally, a big mess. He has been the studio assistant at Mudpuppy Pottery for 10 years and is attending a local university in a desperate attempt to earn a biology degree.

When I heard that there was a new pizza joint opening in town I thought: “Great another place that is going to be serving the same old stuff to the same old faces.”

I couldn’t have been more wrong. What I got was spectacularly simple food and overly friendly service, all at a fair price.

Located on Towson Avenue, in what was the infamous Las Senoritas, is the newest branch of Arkansas’ own Larry’s Pizza. Founded in 1992, Larry’s has expanded all over the state in the past 18 years.

The principle behind it is a sound one. Simple good food, great service, and a good price. Probably the best restaurant business model I’ve ever heard. And it totally works like gangbusters. Larry’s is set up pretty simply with a buffet up front and tons of tables in chairs behind that. You walk in, place your order for either a custom pizza or buffet, pay, and pick your table. You can visit the buffet or just grab a couple of plates and wait.

Why wait, you ask? Well, every time a new pizza comes out they walk around and offer you a slice (or three). Other than the handful of people constantly offering new pizzas, there is a waitress patrolling the place refilling drinks. It can be a little overwhelming, the amount of customer service you get. We’re used to being pretty self sufficient in pizza buffets. The occasional waitress turns up only because they notice your empty glass at the edge of the table and the look in your eye of desperate thirst. Not at Larry’s. I don’t want it come across as pushy, though. They have this honored guest attitude about them. Like you are friend who has come over to dinner and they just want to spoil you rotten and send you home stuffed to the gills.

In addition to the friendly and charming waitresses, Larry’s has one person on the staff that immediately earned a special place in my heart. This is Daniel. Imagine the Rip Taylor of pizza, in a good way. He is the Larry’s Pizza cheerleader. He comes hustling out of the kitchen every few minutes loaded up with fresh pizzas and starts announcing what he’s bringing around. He ribs the customers a little bit, offers one slice and gives you two, guilts you a little bit for not eating enough, and generally puts a smile on everyone’s faces. He’s the Loki of pizza pie. I can’t help but admire someone that enthusiastic about food. He just wants you to be happy. Whether you want to or not.

Enough about my love of the employees, let’s talk about meaty, cheesy pies. And good God do they have a lot of them. From the elegantly simple and somehow breathtakingly magnificent cheese pizza, to the decadently scrumptious Fat Larry’s supreme, I failed to eat a bite of pizza that wasn’t absolutely spec-friggin’-tacular at Larry’s.

That said, there are a few that really shined through the already bright and shiny awesomeness of their food. The first one has got to be the cheeseburger pizza. Normally this grosses me out like nobody’s business. Somehow, Larry’s has managed to take the best cheeseburger of your life and translate it into pizza. Not too mustardy, the perfect balance of sweet and sour, rich and refreshing, heavy and light. It is ridiculously good. Ridiculously good. So good, I had to say it twice. Like an echo of yumminess.

The next thing that just blew my lid off was the pepperoni sticks. Think bread sticks, but way more badass. Fresh baked flat bread covered with cheese, and pepperoni, and sprinkled with bacon. I think getting butter somehow involved is the only way to make these things more dangerous to a waistline.

If your weren’t full enough from slices of cheese, sausage, pepperoni, chicken quesadilla, chicken alfredo, bbq chicken, honey mustard chicken, loaded baked potato, meat madness, and God only knows what other pizzas there is, of course, dessert to squeeze in there. And you only thought you were about to explode. My favorite, hands down, is the Bavarian cream. I don’t think any pizza could be a more wonderfully awesome way to end the meal.

So yeah, eat at Larry’s. You’ll waddle away from the table questioning whether their pizzas have illicit drugs in them. It is that good.

Until next week, good eating to you and yours.

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