Review: SkyKing Pizza - Kingston TN

Here at Pizza Quixote, one recurring theme is the ongoing Pizza Renaissance in America. Just fifteen years ago, it was a struggle to find legitimate pizza outside of the remaining old-school pizza joints in New York, Trenton, New Haven, and a small handful of other places. 

Not sure what has propelled this delightful turn of events, but in 2004, Ed Levine in the New York Times suggested that Chris Bianco was making the best pizza in America in Phoenix, Arizona. That was surely a watershed moment, and it launched the "artisinal Neapolitan" movement still driving the Pizza Renaissance.

There's no shortage of "Best Pizzas in America" lists, but any pizziaolo would be glad to qualify on any such list. In March 2019 Eat This Not That published its rundown of the most popular pizza in each state, and the top Tennessee pizzeria was SkyKing Pizza, in Kingston Springs, west of Nashville just off Interstate 40.

From facebook.com/skykingpizza/

We were passing through, and spending the night in a hotel just off the highway. In these truckstop type of locations, there's usually an assortment of fast food and convenience stores and not much fine dining. I didn't plan on visiting SkyKing, but when my Google search for nearby pizza found it, it looked like our best dining choice, by far.

SkyKing's Facebook site says "Locally owned and operated, we serve all organic, fair trade coffee and espresso from 7am to 11am. You can also grab a fresh muffin or quiche, made from scratch, in house.  Authentic wood-fired pizza, coffee bar & great beers on tap from 5pm-9pm.  Dough made daily."

Their pies are 14", and by phone I ordered one with pepperoni (about $14). It was perhaps a mile and a half from our highway hotel. When I arrived, I found SkyKing located in a street-front store, adjacent to other hangouts for hipster foodies. The interior was decorated in attractive wood accents and was populated with locals, much unlike the fast food places out by the interstate.

Wood-burning dome oven at SkyKing

I didn't spend much time, wanting to get our pizza back to our room as quickly as possible to enjoy it at maximum oven-freshness. But I did notice a large Neapolitan-style wood burning oven, always a good sign of a serious pizza operation.

Visually, this pie was beautiful. Good color on the cornicione, and milky white clouds of fresh mozzarella floating on bright red sauce, dotted with ideally crisped rounds of thin pepperoni.

Golden underside with a little char

The crust - always the most important element - had good flavor all on its own, proper leopard spots, and an optimal puffy/chewy texture. The only negative note is that it was a bit soggy in the center of the pie, which may have resulted from the time it spent sweating in the cardboard takeout box. Every pizza is best direct from the oven, but especially true with Neapolitans.

Above the crust, the red sauce was super bright, a little chunky, with hints of sweetness. The mozzarella was applied in the right proportion, and the pepperoni was well above standard grade as evidenced by its crisping and curling during its short time in the dome oven. Each bite was superbly tasty, and two of us easily demolished it.

This blog was launched in 2011 when I couldn't find a local pizza better than frozen pies, in a suburb only 40 minutes from Philly and an hour from Trenton NJ. Eight short years later, you can find "pizza worth the trip" (or worth the calories) almost anywhere in America. SkyKing is great pizza and it was a delight to find it on our path westward.