I headed out to Monroeville on Monday for lunch. I’ve been wanting to check out Sammy’s Kebab House for awhile now. Working in Murrsyville we have quite a few food options around our work location on 286, so we don’t venture out to Monroeville too often, partly because traffic can be a pain in the ass. Because of this I was kind of pissed when I pulled up to an empty parking lot and noticed that the place isn’t even opened on Mondays.

Oops.

Despite the minor setback, I decided to try the new pizza joint that I’d been hearing about from several different people and it just happened to be right across the street.

Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza began in 2002 in Florida. The company has grown over the last 10 years and now has locations in Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. The Monroeville spot is located in the Miracle Mile shopping plaza and has been opened for about a month.

Anthony’s is located in the old Ponderosa building, which looks to have been completely remodeled and looks brand new from the outside and on the inside. The interior is decorated with sports posters, jerseys, and old style black and white photos of celebrities. As soon as you walk in the door, the large coal oven is visible near the front door.

Since I was rolling solo and the place fairly crowded, I decided to sit at the bar. From the name alone, the place is obviously known for their coal fired pizzas, and the bartender explained the pizza cooking process to me and also mentioned that they were known for their signature style wings.

I went with the lunch sized pizza, “Paul & Young Ron” style, topped with sausage, meatballs, sweet peppers, and ricotta cheese.

The pizzas are served on a thin crust, so they come out crispy, with burned edges (don’t worry they warn you of this before you order it). The bartender also really wanted me to try the wings so he threw in a sample order on the house. The wings are marinated overnight in lemon juice, olive oil, and garlic (I hope I got that right) – and then cooked in the coal oven, and finally topped with caramelized onions.

The wings were excellent. The pizza was excellent. I definitely want to stop back and try some of the other specialty pizzas. I’m also going to try to talk my work crew into stopping here on Friday night for happy hour, as I’m always looking to try new happy hour spots. They have plenty of bar space and look to have 6 or 7 beers on tap, plus a small craft beer bottle selection.

If martinis are your thing, Wed night is Meatball and Martini night. Martinis are on sale for $5 from 5-7:30 and free food samples are served at the bar.

Next time you are in the Monroeville area and looking for a good pizza, give Anthony’s a shot.