Review: The Bakehouse at Chelsea - Norfolk, VA

Norfolk sits at the southern end of the Chesapeake Bay, where it meets the Atlantic Ocean. Home to a large military base, Norfolk is the second largest city in Virginia, trailing only its neighbor, Virginia Beach. Until my visit there, I had known only the northern parts of the state, such as Arlington and Alexandria, the suburbs of Washington DC.

In a quiet part of town I found The Bakehouse at Chelsea, purveyor of breads and pizzas made in a wood-fired oven.  While the breads and breakfast items looked wonderful, their website notes that pizza is the main attraction: "Each pizza begins with organic flour & naturally leavened dough,  baked in a wood burning oven specifically designed and built by hand to give our pizzas a crispy, charred crust." 

The Birch (L) and The Bakehouse at Chelsea (R)

Adjacent to The Bakehouse is The Birch, a hipster hangout with "21 craft beer drafts, 5 cider & mead taps, and a curated menu of artisan cheeses, beer inspired grilled cheese, and brewer inspired bratwursts." I learned that you can order a pizza at Bakehouse and have it delivered to you at The Birch for a pizza-and-beer experience.

Open-air taproom at The Birch

Pizzas come in small, medium, and large sizes. Among several intriguing specialty pies, I gambled on the Bacon Gouda pizza ($15.75 for the 12" medium), featuring tomato Sauce, Mozzarella, smoked Gouda, bacon, and caramelized onion.

The Bacon Gouda Pizza (12")

After making my order, I ambled over to The Birch, and I loved how the beer menu was organized by styles like "Light and Crisp" or "Sour and Funky" or "Hoppy."  I ordered a flight to sample four different beers, and all were terrific. Here are the current offerings: http://thebirchbar.com/draftlist.

Messy to eat, lots of cheese

I regret that I didn't have sufficient appetite to order some more food from the menu at The Birch. The pizza set-up service was, basically, here's a box with your pizza. No plates, no silverware, no napkins; the bartender did get some napkins for me after I asked.

The wood-fired oven (from https://www.bakehouse757.com/)

The lack of plates and silverware looked to be a potential messy problem, because on first inspection, this was a very soupy pie, loaded with cheese.  Indeed it was - for the first slice, I was able to eat it only by the terrible New York habit of folding. Afterward, as the pie cooled a bit, the cheese congealed sufficiently to make it easier to eat.

Despite the cheese overload and the lack of utensils, the rest of the experience was revelatory. This was outstanding Neapolitan-hybrid pizza. When I saw the volume of cheese on top, I expected the crust to be soggy in the middle - but it wasn't. 

Al fresco dining available

The crust was crisp, chewy, pliable but sturdy, and had a superbly yeasty flavor. It was darkly charred underneath, but didn't have a "burned" taste at all. Its overall texture was just about perfect, as good as it gets for a thin crust round pizza.

The big gamble had been the Gouda cheese; I worried that its smoky flavor would overwhelm the other ingredients. It was indeed a big flavor, but not that artificial smokiness found in some inexpensive versions. It did dominate but it played nicely with the crust, sauce, and bacon. Despite giving off a lot of grease in the baking process, it had an excellent texture, too.

Delectable char underneath

The sauce seemed to be good quality, and it added the right acid balance to the cheese. I might have liked a bit more sauce, but that also may have put the pie over the top in terms of how much moisture that crust could carry.

Even with all the smoky Gouda, the bacon didn't get lost. It was applied in thick chewy chunks that got an ideal oven crisping. All the ingredients were in flavor and textural harmony. My habit is to add salt to pizza, but there was so much flavor here, none was necessary.

This was my best pizza of 2019, made all the better by devouring it at The Birch with a flight of excellent craft beer on a warm spring evening in Southern Virginia. Great pizza, great experience, don't miss it if you're any place nearby.