I recently stopped by Pizza 51 on a Sunday afternoon, after Comic Con, with my junior review team, the “youth review crew.” They had joined me about a month ago when we tried Pizza Tascio for the first time, and I explained the wonder of New York thin crust style pizza. My young reviewers have been to Pizza 51 several times over the past 6-7 years. They’ve like the pizza and the atmosphere. We have a few photos of them posing in front of the big Pizza 51 “guitar” when they were youngsters in elementary school.
Several of their friends had joined us for Comic Con, so Pizza 51 on a nice spring day was an easy choice. Especially because the restaurant has a large outdoor patio.
Thoughts from the youth crew? One of them had their first calzone, one with olives. “Pretty good, but didn’t like the ricotta.” One of the friends had a calzone stuffed with other ingredients. The other youth crew described their experience:
“Their pizza is really good. I had cheese with chicken. I liked the way the chicken was cooked. Not like other places. Liked how the pizza was cut. Easy to eat. Wish I had known that green olives were available. Most places don’t have green olives.”
My go-to pizza option at Pizza 51 has long been their green and black olive slice. As a vegetarian, olive pizzas are my favorite and as one of the youth review crew members notes, green olives aren’t often available in many pizza joints. Their slices are big enough for one meal. I’m a big fan of New York style pizza and I find their slices to be faithful to that style. The do cut up the slices into bite size bits, which isn’t how NY-style slices are eaten, but I’m willing to live with that presentation.
I’ve seen some customers walk out with huge flat boxes, so it looks like large family style pizzas are available. Makes sense, given that UMKC is across the street. Students gotta have their mega pizza pies.
Pizza 51 has a large outdoor seating area, which is good for big groups, families, and those with health concerns. They have three TV screens outside. We were watching the Royals game during our recent visit.
Pizza 51
5060 Oak St, Kansas City, MO 64112
http://www.pizza51.com/
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