Baltimore Take 2...after a lovely afternoon spent walking around the Inner Harbor and watching the O's cream the Indians we come upon our second Triple D stop of the day. Literally if you walk 1 block down and 1 block to the right of the Blue Moon, you will find yourself standing in front of a corner brick building with the heavenly smell of fresh baked pizza crust emanating from it. Welcome to Brick Oven Pizza. While the Blue Moon is kind of on the outskirts of Fells Point, B.O.P is right in the heart of it, and is a kind of landmark in the neighboorhood. This is one of those instances where widely popular opinion and Triple D meet. Most of the time Triple D highlights those places that are a a cross between diamond in the rough and local haunts, that people only know about if they've lived in the area for ages. That is not the case here. This is one of the most widely known places we've visited thus far. Their reputation would precede them, even without the bump from Food Network exposure. They have regularly been voted the Best Pizza in Baltimore by multiple magazines and are a hot spot for celebrities who are cruising through the area. One of the signs on the front of the building plays host to quotes from celebs ranging from the late, great George Carlin to Kevin Bacon all praising B.O.P for their awesome pizza. You feel like you're at home at B.O.P. It rides the line between being a small, intimate, neighborhood restaurant and being a vastly popular late night hang-out perfectly. You get the sense that if you were to wander in around 1 am (and yes they are open that late) you would find the place packed, with everyone inside have a great time, ready for more food. The buil
ding itself is cute and quaint while also fitting into the old-fashioned feel of the neighborhood architecture. For appearing small on the outside, inside there are plenty of tables, and with how fast they crank out pies you will probably never be waiting too long for a table, if you have to wait at all. This place is colorful and full of excitement, it lives and breathes the city...from the huge mural of the neighboorhood on the wall to the maps of Fells Point which are the table tops, you feel you're experiencing Baltimore from the moment you sit down. There's so much to look at on the walls, from celebrity signed pictures to all the write-ups they've had in local and national magazines that you can get lost in everything and forget to order your pizza. This place is dominated by it's crown jewel...a huge, gleaming brick oven with huge gold B.O.P letters attached to the front. It's the first thing you see when you walk in and it really is one of the highlights of the restaurant, since it is so out in the open, right behind the counter.
ding itself is cute and quaint while also fitting into the old-fashioned feel of the neighborhood architecture. For appearing small on the outside, inside there are plenty of tables, and with how fast they crank out pies you will probably never be waiting too long for a table, if you have to wait at all. This place is colorful and full of excitement, it lives and breathes the city...from the huge mural of the neighboorhood on the wall to the maps of Fells Point which are the table tops, you feel you're experiencing Baltimore from the moment you sit down. There's so much to look at on the walls, from celebrity signed pictures to all the write-ups they've had in local and national magazines that you can get lost in everything and forget to order your pizza. This place is dominated by it's crown jewel...a huge, gleaming brick oven with huge gold B.O.P letters attached to the front. It's the first thing you see when you walk in and it really is one of the highlights of the restaurant, since it is so out in the open, right behind the counter. Now, let's face it, this is a pizza joint. You're probably expecting a standard menu, 
nothing spectacular beyond the fact that Guy thought the pizza was better than others. On the contrary though, B.O.P is NOT your usual pizza parlor. The menu is in a word...huge. Huge to the point that it took Ben and I almost 15 minutes to decide what we wanted to order and we're usually pizza purists--pepperoni and bacon, no questions asked. At B.O.P though the options are endless. They have upwards of 50--yes 50!--toppings to choose from, on top of a great selection of specialty pizzas. If you're feeling crazy you can go for their Mac 'n Cheese pizza or for their true specialty--SPAM pizza. Ben refused to wander down this path, despite my desire for it, because my family is odd and I grew up living for the weekend and the joy of homemade pizza Friday nights where my Dad would make the most incredible pizza that was oddly enough topped with SPAM. But Ben turned me around from that tri
p down memory lane, and we faced a struggle between two choices...the 7 cheese or the Meat Lovers. We ended up going for the Meat Lovers and believe me this wasn't just your run-of-the-mill pepperoni, bacon, sausage pizza. No, no. This thing was laden down with pepperoni, sausage, bacon, ham, hamburger, and possibly some other toppings I'm forgetting. Given the blazing brick oven, our pizza literally went from ordering to our table in about 5 minutes flat. The oven gets up to 700+ degrees and trust me that makes for some quick pizza. Other than the oven, one of the characteristics of B.O.P pizza is the cornmeal on the bottom of it. It helps make the pizza not burn in the oven or stick to it, and the crunch that this adds to the crust is simply...incredible. If you don't like cornmeal, I would beg you to try it out just once because it just gives this pizza an extra kick. B.O.P also has a fair number of dessert pizzas but when you're only 2 people it really limits how much of the menu you can sample when it comes to pizza so we weren't able to try this out, but believe me it looked good! One of the other cool things about B.O.P is that they have about 50 options for flavors you can get infused into your fountain drink for free...I mean we're talking from plain ole vanilla (which Ben and I both went with because we're dull) all the way to bubble gum, so that's just a fun little quirk, on top of the fact that they have both Coke and Pepsi fountains which is simply amazing for a Pepsi person living on an East Coast obsessed with Coke products.
nothing spectacular beyond the fact that Guy thought the pizza was better than others. On the contrary though, B.O.P is NOT your usual pizza parlor. The menu is in a word...huge. Huge to the point that it took Ben and I almost 15 minutes to decide what we wanted to order and we're usually pizza purists--pepperoni and bacon, no questions asked. At B.O.P though the options are endless. They have upwards of 50--yes 50!--toppings to choose from, on top of a great selection of specialty pizzas. If you're feeling crazy you can go for their Mac 'n Cheese pizza or for their true specialty--SPAM pizza. Ben refused to wander down this path, despite my desire for it, because my family is odd and I grew up living for the weekend and the joy of homemade pizza Friday nights where my Dad would make the most incredible pizza that was oddly enough topped with SPAM. But Ben turned me around from that tri
p down memory lane, and we faced a struggle between two choices...the 7 cheese or the Meat Lovers. We ended up going for the Meat Lovers and believe me this wasn't just your run-of-the-mill pepperoni, bacon, sausage pizza. No, no. This thing was laden down with pepperoni, sausage, bacon, ham, hamburger, and possibly some other toppings I'm forgetting. Given the blazing brick oven, our pizza literally went from ordering to our table in about 5 minutes flat. The oven gets up to 700+ degrees and trust me that makes for some quick pizza. Other than the oven, one of the characteristics of B.O.P pizza is the cornmeal on the bottom of it. It helps make the pizza not burn in the oven or stick to it, and the crunch that this adds to the crust is simply...incredible. If you don't like cornmeal, I would beg you to try it out just once because it just gives this pizza an extra kick. B.O.P also has a fair number of dessert pizzas but when you're only 2 people it really limits how much of the menu you can sample when it comes to pizza so we weren't able to try this out, but believe me it looked good! One of the other cool things about B.O.P is that they have about 50 options for flavors you can get infused into your fountain drink for free...I mean we're talking from plain ole vanilla (which Ben and I both went with because we're dull) all the way to bubble gum, so that's just a fun little quirk, on top of the fact that they have both Coke and Pepsi fountains which is simply amazing for a Pepsi person living on an East Coast obsessed with Coke products. Pizza places are tough to write about because, like I said, you only sample a small slice (no pun intended) of the menu, but this was one of those places that I really look forward to going back to, hopefully with a larger chunk of my family so that way we can try out a few more pizzas. So either way, whether you're a pizza junkie or just enjoy the occasional slice, check out B.O.P and you'll never think about pizza the same way again.
Per usual: http://www.boppizza.com/
