Review: Palermo's Pizza, Pottstown PA

On a warm Friday night, we ordered six pies for a big group of people to devour outdoors. Prices were fair; four of the pies had one or more toppings and the tab was just over $90. The pies were fresh and tasty, but at the end of the day, this pizza tasted pretty much like every other pizza that is made with ingredients that come from national food supply chains.

Click any pic to enlarge

These Sysco-sourced pies (or pizzas made with ingredients from other big restaurant suppliers) typically start with that thick, soft, floppy crust. Piemakers want to be generous, so they then overload the crust with too much sauce, cheese, and other toppings until you have a gloppy mess best eaten with a spoon. 


If you have to fold the pizza in order to be able to lift it and eat it, the pizzaolo has failed. The crust is the foundation of the pie, and it needs to be able to support the magic that should be taking place on the north side when cheese, sauce, and toppings fuse in the heat of the oven.

Looks tasty, and it was

Not to single out Palermo's, probably 95% of pizzerias are doing the same thing; it's commodity pizza and it is surely better than you get from the national chains. It tastes good while filling your belly. But it's not even a hint of how awesome pizza can be when made with better ingredients and better care. Palermo's red sauce did have some zing, it was the only standout feature here.

THAT is good pizza, but you have to go to Rome for it

This stuff is fine as your neighborhood pie, but it's the kind I would never order twice. Floppy crust, an overload of bland cheese and toppings -- I'm going to spend my pizza calories some other way. On a scale of 1 to 10, Palermo's earns a 5.5.

This is why a dozen people were eating pizza. Geeks.