Friday night I had the experience of checking out one of my new favorite restaurants in the DFW area- Urban Crust in Plano, TX. Anyone that knows me knows that I love great food (pizza in particular), low prices, and a great bar. Urban Crust has all of these combined. An old warehouse building turned pizza joint, Urban Crust has 3 levels of fun.When we arrived, it was packed and we were told that there'd be an hour wait, but that we could spend it waiting at the 32 degrees rooftop icebar upstairs. I have to say I was really excited about getting upstairs to see that bar. I had seen on the website that they were known for fresh fruitinis, so I knew while going up the three flights of stairs what drink I would be getting- a strawberry/dragonfruit martini. The whole way up to the bar is was packed. You could tell people knew how good this place was and were willing to wait a long time. We ordered our drinks and went out to the outdoor patio to hang out and wait for our table. We had fabulous weather, great drinks, and even got to watch some baseball while waiting. It turns out that the bar area was kept fairly chilly, the drinks served at 32 degrees, and there was a strip of ice across the bartop that you could put your drinks on to keep them cold. How cool! (no pun intended!)
When our buzzer finally went off, we were sat down on the first floor right next to the open kitchen- the perfect viewing spot to see the woodfired oven and expo station. We started with the calamari, and got three pizzas to share among the 6 of us- the Margherita, the Black & Blue, and the Urban Amore. Simple, meaty, and sweet/salty. The calamari was uniquely plated, and was delicious, but I was looking forward to the pizza.
After a round of drinks, some calamari, and bread, out came our pizzas. This pizza was placed right infront of me:
The one I'd been looking forward to! The Urban Amore- fig preserves, proscuitto di Parma, Texas goat cheese, aged balsamic, arugula. It was love at first sight.Let me tell you about how delicious this pizza was. The subtle sweetness of the fig preserves mixed with the saltiness of the goat cheese, and the peppery arugula produced probably the greatest flavor combination I've ever experienced. The tasted crust, which was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, was a great, flavorful carrier of all the toppings. Not too thin, not too thick, and just right on the sweetness. I never thought I'd taste these flavors together, especially not on a ten dollar pizza! $10 bucks for this experience! A very small price to pay for this amazingness called the Urban Amore.
The other pizzas were all good and fine, but didn't compare to this pizza at all. As far as Margherita goes, Lombardi's in NYC killed this one, and the Black & Blue was a bit too "blue" (this coming from someone who loves bleu cheese). But, overall, a fabulous pizza experience. We had 2 calamaris, 3 pizzas, a round of drinks, and one other appetizer, for $15/person. How cheap is that?!
Anyways, this is definitely a restaurant I'll go back to- perhaps on a weeknight during their happy hour to enjoy the Icebar when it's less crowded. Check it out at www.urbancrust.com
