Cuisine Review

I am always on the lookout for good pizza. For a while, on my few trips out to WeMo, I noticed Fox’s Pizza Den from the corner of my eye – in a nondescript shopping center at the corner of Cottage Hill and Azalea – wondering if it was worth a taste.

Recently when talking to my next-door neighbors we got to talking about pizza and they raved about Fox’s. One of them has to go out that way sometimes and picks up sandwiches or pizza to bring back to LoDa. For someone to make this kind of effort, it seemed to me I should take the trip.

Just a couple of days later a client asked me to bring lunch, so take-out would be my first try. Fox’s has dine in, carry out and delivery.

The dine-in is small and I would recommend you eat in more out of convenience than comfort. Do not get me wrong, the owners and staff are all friendly, knowledgeable and nice to talk to. There are just about five or six tables inside.

Fox’s is a chain, but a small one and my neighbors told me how nice the couple is that own it and they fit my requirement of a local business owner. Their menu and Web site say their sauce has won an International Award and I believe their claim that they use a 100 percent whole milk mozzarella, provolone and parmesan cheese blend.

For that first take-out, I had to make a quick decision that would please everyone. The menu is full of breads, wings, gyros, pizza, stromboli, hoagies and “wedgies.”

I immediately went to the specialty pizza area and my eye focused on the Pizza Rocco. This is a Tuscan style pizza made with their “Rocco sauce” which consists of extra virgin olive oil, minced garlic and a secret blend of herbs and spices. These pizzas are only available as a large. Pizzas come in 12” medium, 14” large, 16” large or the Bid Daddy (30”).

I chose the Five Cheese Spinach Rocco and added chicken ($22.50) with fresh spinach, feta, cheddar, sharp parmesan, whole milk mozzarella and provolone with chunks of spiced chicken. And while I waited on it, I ate a slice of cheese – immediately I could taste a real cheese blend with flavor. No commercial bag of shredded cheese had been put on here or at least not in front of me! They have pizza-by-the-slice that you can order at the counter.

The Five Cheese Spinach pizza was heaping with spinach and mounds of chicken. The chicken had been grilled and then cubed to a nice size. The pizza can feed at least five not starving people. We were all hungry with three people, but still had plenty to spare. All of the ingredients were fresh, and while the crust typically for this style pizza is thicker, they made a thinner crust at my request. Their thin is not cracker thin but a thin with some heft to it. The crust has a mild taste and we all loved the pizza.

So I went back the next day with my son and we ate in. It was one of those pouring rain Saturdays we have had, so we took our time looking over the menu.

First on the menu is a selection of breads – regular or cheese sticks and garlic or garlic cheese bread. The garlic bread sounds the best to me, an Italian loaf split open and seasoned with garlic butter and parmesan ($4 small, $5 large) or with added mozzarella and provolone ($1 more to each). They have wings in hot super hot, bbq or Italian in with 10, 15 or 20 piece increments.

Now what my neighbors had told me about were the sandwiches and gyros. They have the regular gyro with shredded lettuce, tomato, onions with Tzatziki sauce (yogurt sauce with dill) or an all-white chicken marinated in their homemade marinade with the above and chips. They come in either a one-quarter pound or half-pound size (gyro $5 for quarter pound, $7 for half pound; chicken $6.50 for quarter pound, $9 for half pound). I selected the quarter pound chicken gyro. I cannot imagine one person eating the half-pound gyro alone. A large, warmed pita was so full of lemon pepper spiced chicken chunks I could barely fold it in half to eat it. The sauce was a bit thick to spread, but light in taste. The only reason I did not eat more than half was that my son was going on and on so much about his pizza that I started eating it as well.

For sandwiches, they have hoagies and wedgies. I did not really get, or ask, or want to ask out loud what a “wedgie” is so I cannot tell you much. But I can tell you that the regular size hoagies are $6, the large $9 and a wedgie is $9 as well. They are all baked sandwiches such as turkey and cheese; ham and cheese; pizzaroni with pepperoni, marinara, mozzarella and provolone; Italian with ham, salami, green peppers, onions and the two cheeses or a club with turkey, ham, bacon, cheddar and the two cheeses. All come dressed with condiments on the side, and chips. I need to ask my neighbors which ones they like.

The pizza toppings are all the regulars – all the meats, the basic vegetables (black and green olives, spinach stand out), pineapple. Cheddar, chicken, feta or salami all count as two toppings. A large one topping pizza is going to cost about $10. The “gourmets” are a meat supreme, deluxe, veggie, Hawaiian, bacon double cheeseburger and a large one is about $16. My son wanted a medium meat supreme hold the ham, but they showed us a coupon on the back of the take out menu for a large gourmet for $12 – good customer service. It was beyond awesome – but of course we ate it RIGHT AFTER it came out of the oven. I am sure it tastes great when delivered, but don’t send me hate mail if yours is not piping hot when you eat it. All of the ingredients are quality and what we liked about the sauce is that it is not all mounded on there, it is only slightly sweet and they put enough on there to hold the pizza together.

I would say that if I lived in this area this would be my pick up and delivery pizza of choice – or if my kid went to St. Luke’s especially. Do make sure to ask about the Big Daddy 30” – a cheese is $50, but if you eat it by yourself they will pay you $500.

Kinnon Phillips is Lagniappe cuisine editor. Contact him at kphillips@lagniappemobile.com.

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