Review: Toss Pizzeria & Pub - Austin, TX

Toss Pizzeria & Pub, with two Austin locations, describes its pizza as "New York-style pies with a Texas twist." We visited the Bee Cave location on a warm summer night. There's a large (and noisy) attractive patio dining area, but the Texas heat made us choose inside seating.

It was a large space, modern and uncomplicated, noisy with sporting events on several large screens and plenty of patrons, especially families. The serving staff was especially polite from start to finish, and helpfully turned down the volume on the blaring TV sets.

Pies come in three sizes; the large is 20", medium is 14", and the small personal sized pie is 10". Because we wanted to try more than one pie, we ordered a medium Classic Pepperoni pizza and a small Pulled Pork Carbonara pie. The menu also includes appetizers, salads, chicken wings, a nice selection of cocktails at $8 and craft beers on tap.

The Classic pie featured "cup and char" pepperoni, the small-diameter thick-cut circles that curl up into little saucers while the edges gain some oven charring. The New York pizza analogy is apt, and the crust compares nicely with the best New York pizza, like Denino's, which sports a thin but sturdy crust with little droop. This is not the floppy and foldable type of pizza found in slice shops on the east coast; it's a solid level up.

The thin crust led to a nice puffy cornicione, which was a perfect golden color, sporting little crunchy heat blisters all along the edges. The underside was likewise a pale gold, with more of those tiny crunchy bubbles. The crust had excellent flavor and a satisfying chewiness despite its prominent crunch; it was an ideal platform for the toppings.

Underside of the crust

The conventional mozzarella melded nicely with the marinara to form that familiar orange look on top. While both the sauce and cheese were tasty and good quality, they served as role players to complete the textural mix and complement that wonderful pepperoni.

The Carbonara pizza had an identical crust, but it was a very different experience. When a personal sized pie comes with egg, my expectation is one egg. Here, there were three perfectly-cooked sunnyside-up eggs with bacon riding atop a Romano cream sauce. The Texas element, and the over-the-top factor, was the pulled pork. It was a delightful umami flavor bomb and it made the NY-Texas marriage a resounding success.

I'm anxious to return to try more of these pies, where the quality and texture of the best New York style pizzas are amped up with some southwest flavors. I'm especially intrigued by the Texas BBQ Brisket pie, which features smoked brisket, pickles, onions, mozzarella, and BBQ sauce.

Like every worthy pizza, greatness starts with the crust. Toss pies are a well-balanced mix of ingredients and textures - one more terrific pizza in the Austin region.