Review: EVO Pizza, North Charleston, SC

Coastal Carolina is a wonderful place for visitors - historic mansions and plantations, pristine beaches, the charm of Charleston, and of course that low country cooking. During an 8 day stretch spent on Kiawah Island and in Charleston, I had (and fulfilled) great expectations for local fare like shrimp and grits, fried chicken, and okra gumbo.

My pizza bar was set a bit lower - but I did some scouting ahead of time and found four pizza places of interest in or near Charleston. I expected nothing better than ordinary tourist stuff around Kiawah, but we were astonished and delighted to stumble upon La Tela in a modern shopping center just a mile or so outside the island.

We struck gold again on our short trek from Kiawah to Charleston, stopping at Crust Wood-Fired Pizza on James Island. Before we even got into our hotel room in the French Quarter we'd found two wonderful Neapolitan-style pies. That's already two more than I had anticipated.

Our last day was a Sunday with a short agenda. We had visited the wonderful Drayton Hall on the outskirts of Charleston and found ourselves in a remote area with time to kill before a late flight home. Since we hadn't yet visited the top pizzeria from my scouting report, we decided to head to EVO in North Charleston on a hot afternoon.

What remained of our corn salad

EVO ("Extra Virgin Oven") is located on a quiet boulevard that looks like an old-time Mayberry-ish strip of downtown storefronts, except that every one had been updated to a hip destination for dining or yoga or other services. We felt that we could likely get a good meal in any spot there.

The interior was comfortable and casual, and we were greeted promptly and warmly. Because the personal size pies were listed at 12" and we had no capacity for taking home leftovers, we decided to split one salad and one pizza.

The salads come in two sizes, and the large size ($11) is big enough to be a meal. From an inventive list, we chose the Corn Salad, which featured tender mixed greens, fresh roasted corn, and a cured meat that (I think) was bacon, all in a savory dressing. We were hungry and that salad was terrific, which explains why there is only a picture of it after more than half was eaten. 

The pizza menu likewise offered options that were inventive without venturing into the weird or the excessive. We settled on a special "speck and mushroom" pizza ($15) that featured that wonderful cured meat (speck is - to me - the best take on prosciutto), deeply flavored mushrooms, and basil pine nut pesto.

The pizza arrived at our table cut into 6 slices. It looked beautiful, top and bottom. A big and puffy cornicione, plenty of leopard spotting, and a generous distribution of curled and crisp speck.

EVO is both a bakery and a pizzeria, and it seems they have some special bread skills. The pies at Crust and La Tela had both sported flawless Neapolitan or Neapolitan hybrid crusts, but this crust was at another level. It had all the elements of great bread - flavor, a tender chew, structure to support the toppings, and a crisp crunch.

But the crust was only the beginning here. Some white pies can be tame in flavor, lacking the acidic punch of a good red sauce. Here, though, was an explosion of deep savory flavors. I wish I had taken note of what kind of mushrooms were used (shittake?), but there was an umami party going on here.

While the cured meat and mushrooms provided the first burst of flavor, it was the basil pinenut pesto that brought all the elements into harmony. I'm sure the cheese was top grade, but it took a bit of a back seat to the intense flavors even as it was an essential element to balance the textures.

Mrs. Quixote rarely battles me for the last slice, but here we instantly lamented when it was gone. This was about a perfect pizza, and she said it was the best pizza of her life. I'm not ready to go that far, but it's the most flavorful pizza I can recall and this pie should make anybody's Top Ten list.

The "Extra Virgin Oven"

There's a thousand reasons to visit the Charleston area, and EVO may be the best of them. Absolutely destination pizza, worth the trip no matter where your starting point may be.