After 7 pages of posts, I decided I had to check out Lorenzo's for myself for lunch today. I went shortly after noon, and found them doing a brisk carryout business, along with several people dining in.
Early on in this thread, I asked quite seriously if there could possibly be another "great" pizzeria in south Charlotte. With Tony's, Palermo's, Farley's, Marino's and Si's Pizzeria all within a small radius, I think that if anything, there are
too many pizzerias in South Charlotte. I still do. I wasn't exactly enthused to see another pizzeria opening at Cedar Walk.
That said, I have tried pizza from all the restaurants listed above, and while I had some favorites (Tony's) among them, I didn't find any pizza that I truly loved. I know the mechanics of making a pizza - I worked at Domino's for 5 years. But my time at Domino's also made me hate bad, mediocre pizza (like theirs, Pizza Hut, etc) so I have a pretty high standard when it comes to pizza. (Several of the restaurants listed above serve subpar pizza in my book, with one of them being inedible.)
All that to say I had low expectations for Lorenzo's. Yay, another pizza joint. So when I actually
tasted their pizza today, I was really,
really surprised. I ordered a slice of Grandma's Pizza, and a slice of cheese pizza. My slices arrived in just a few minutes, and they were fan-freakin'-tastic.
Lorenzo's gets 2 critical ingredients right that none of the restaurants above seem to: Their crust is very tasty, and it's very crispy and light. And their sauce really tastes homemade. It's not metallic at all, and not overseasoned. Usually after I eat pizza, I feel my mouth tastes "icky" 20 or 30 minutes later, unless I "cleanse" my palate with something else. Not so with Lorenzo's.
I have read about "greasy" pizza in the thread, and my pizza slices were not greasy at all. Of course, I didn't get any meat on the pizza. (I'll try pepperoni for my next visit.) The slices aren't insanely, crazily large (I'm looking at you, Tony's) but they're good sized. I ate half of each slice and took the rest back to the office for lunch tomorrow.
There were a couple of things I think could be improved: when I entered, there was a small line and I wasn't clear about where the front of the line was. There's an "ORDER HERE" sign over the register, but were the people working their way to the cash register from the door, or had they ordered and were they waiting on something else? An "ENTER HERE" type sign where the line should begin would clear that up nicely.
I also think that for lunch, in addition to their current "lunch buffet" special they might want to consider a pizza-based special: A slice, a drink and maybe 2 garlic knots (or a small side salad) for a set price would be nice. I wanted to try the garlic knots but I didn't want 6 of them. 1 slice of pizza and a drink seemed like too little. 2 slices of pizza and a drink seemed too much. So a slice with some other little item would be just right (ok, for me).
We'll definitely go back for pizza there this weekend!
And something that the thread is missing - photos! Here's a shot of my slice of Grandma's pie. I didn't take a shot of the cheese slice. Didn't want to call too much attention to myself!
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Yes, it's great!
