Austin is a Texas city of many blessings, geographical and cultural. It's not surprising to find all kinds of great food in town (especially BBQ), but as a new Texan I've been delighted that the pizza is as good as the east coast varieties I know so well.Austin proper is blessed with Home Slice for NY style slices, Via 313 for astonishing Detroit style and a thin crust bar pie, and Salvation Pizza for a Trenton-style tomato pie. Even 15 miles west in Willie Nelson's Spicewood Texas you can find world-class Neapolitans at Sorellina and Casa Nostra. Lakeway is a nearby western suburb situated along scenic Lake Travis, which is really just a deep and wide stretch of the Colorado River. All kinds of food trailers beckon as you drive Route 620 between Round Rock and Bee Cave, with taco trucks being a core theme. Recently, in a small commerce park that includes a Brusster's Ice Cream shop and a massage parlor, Lake Travis Pizza began operation is a small, bright red shack. "We make pizzas in our Inferno Series revolving brick oven, the only one of its type in Austin. Our dough is prepared on site daily. Lake Travis Pizza’s signature pizza was created as homage to the first pie that originated in Naples, Italy. Our Old-World Pizza is made with fresh, sliced Mozzarella and topped with imported Italian tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, Pecorino Romano, baked at 700 degrees and topped with fresh basil."
The menu includes appetizers and sub sandwiches, but my focus was on the pizza. The pizzas are categorized as "Old World" (made with fresh mozzarella) or "New York" style made with conventional mozzarella.
I opted for a large Old World pizza with pepperoni; I ordered one online and picked it up to bring home, about a 15 minute drive. The aroma in the car was intoxicating; it's a smell that instantly conveys "great pizza ahead." I can remember the same phenomenon at Picco in Boston and at Tony's Place in Philly. You walk in, that bready bouquet wafts over you, and your mood is instantly elevated.  |
Good char underneath
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At home, I gave the pie a light re-heating in the oven at 300 degrees for 8 minutes. It came out looking as good as it smelled, with areas of deep red sauce, saucers of pepperoni, and a dark golden cornicione. |
The rotating Inferno oven
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Great pizza requires a great crust, a crust that you'd eat even with no sauce and cheese. This crust was a Neapolitan hybrid with some of the textural elements of a conventional soft and puffy Neapolitan, but also plenty of crispness. It had its own rich flavor and was cooked about perfectly, right down to the leopard spotting underneath. The oven is important, but not as important as the skill of the pizzaiolo.The cheese was very well balanced to the rest of the pizza, but it was a role player here. The sauce, however, was remarkable. Dark, thick, rich, and bursting with flavor. I would have liked more of it on this pie. And of course, the spicy cup pepperoni was about a perfect accent, adding yet one more layer of umami.  |
| Grandma pie available by special order |
This is great pizza. Fantastic stuff, and I suspect that the 10" personal pizza is even better. Because of its Neapolitan heritage, the dough is a little soft in the center of a large pie. I'm guessing that the smaller pizza gets a more even cooking in that high tech oven.It's dangerous territory to rank pizzas, but my take on "The Pizzas of Austin's Western Suburbs" is that Sorellina holds on to the top spot, followed by Lake Travis Pizza, Casa Nostra, Toss, 'Zza, Leyla's, and Jersey Giant. All are worth the calories, and no one ever needs to eat Domino's again unless you are trapped at a preschooler's birthday party.  |
Lake Travis
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I'm eager to try the pan-baked square pie, especially the Grandma variety. Lake Travis pizza is superb stuff, and more proof that "it's the water" is a silly myth about great NYC pizza. Water has almost nothing to do with it; it's about quality ingredients and pizzamaking skills. Lake Travis pizza has that in spades. We'll be back often.
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