While we were visiting family in northwest Ohio, we stopped by Beer Barrel Pizza & Grill at Fallen Timbers in Maumee, Ohio. We've been plenty of times, just haven't blogged about it until now. I like getting huge 23 oz drafts of their Beer Barrel Bright Lager and then feel guilty when no one else gets alcohol and Chris' parents pick up the check.
We started with garlic bread knots, which were dripping in melted butter but delicious if you don't mind getting your fingers gooey. They are plump and fresh and disappear quickly from the table. They taste like they are baked rather than just reheated but who's to say.
I got the San Antonio White Chicken pizza, which is in their hand crafted gourmet thin and crispy pizza section. It's a relatively thin crust with Chipotle cream sauce, seasoned grilled chicken, sweet corn, black beans, and smoked provolone topped with fresh chopped cilantro.
The cheese was great and the cilantro was a nice fresh touch. The corn and beans were good, it felt like they didn't really come together into a cohesive flavor. It just tasted like ingredients on top of pizza dough or like the same toppings they use on nachos but on pizza instead. I know, I sound like an idiot complaining that my ingredients on top of dough weren't magically transformed somehow, but I've seen this at other places too - especially if they use the same toppings in multiple other dishes and not just as pizza toppings.
It was good, I sound like a snob. My corn on pizza theory was proven yet again that it's always a good decision.
Corn is a popular pizza topping in Japan. One cool thing there is that most restaurants have realistic plastic models of the food they serve on display in the front window so you know what you're getting yourself into.
In Maumee, the best pizza place is the Village Idiot. Great dive bar atmosphere too.