Review: Tony C's Coal Fired Pizza - Bee Cave, TX

When I moved to a suburb west of Austin in 2019, I knew about the excellent pizzas available in or near downtown: Home Slice, Salvation, and (most of all) the spectacular Detroit style pies at Via 313.

Out in my suburb, west still of the Bee Cave suburb but east of the current frontier to Old Texas where Willie Nelson lives on Luck Ranch (Spicewood, TX), I was surprised to find truly superb Neapolitans at Sorellina and Casa Nostra. 

Bee Cave itself, a prosperous suburb that reminds me of Exton PA and countless other towns that have seen rapid development in the last 20 years, is home to the very good TX-NY hybrid pizza at Toss and the St. Louis style hybrids at 'Zza.

But the one local Bee Cave pizzeria that intrigued me the most was Tony C's Coal-Fired Pizza, located in the Galleria Shopping Center. I had only great pizza experiences on the east coast with coal-fired pizzas at Totonno's and Grimaldi's in Brooklyn; John's, Patsy's, Lombardi's, and Arturo's in Manhattan; and any location of the chain Anthony's Coal-Fired Pizza.

I made the mistake of not getting to Tony C's before the covid19 lockdowns, and I postponed the experience because I wanted to dine-in for the best pizza experience. However, having tried just about every pizza in the burbs west of Austin, I broke down and ordered a pie for takeout in January 2022.

I ordered a 16" large pizza with pepperoni; after tax and tip that came to about $23. There is a very convenient "bring the pizza to your car" service, with a parking spot right in front reserved for that purpose. Upon returning home, I gave the pie a quick reheat in my oven on a perforated pan, my standard process whenever I don't get to eat the pizza directly from the pizza oven.

As always, the crust is the critical feature. This one looked appetizing if a tad generic, but it showed a lot of flop as I loaded it onto the pan to reheat. Even after some oven crisping, this was a very soft pizza. It wasn't wet in the center, but it was very greasy; moreso that you might expect from the pepperoni on top. Much of the grease was somehow on the bottom of the crust.

There are several Tony C's locations in the Austin suburbs, and the "coal-fired" description is used inconsistently among the pizzeria website, its physical locations, and its social media. This pizza, with its even browning on the underside of its soft crust, showed no sign of coal-fired cooking. Given my high expectations, the crust was pretty disappointing until I got to the cornicione. There I found some decent hole structure, a crisper texture, and a hint of flavor.

Underside of crust

The full taste experience was salty and greasy, but in a good way. There was plenty of thin and spicy pepperoni that led to a nice balance in flavors and textures with the sauce and cheese. On a lot of New York style pies, the cheese and the sauce meld into a signature orange goo, and that was working pretty well here.

If you like a soft crust pizza, you can't go wrong with this tasty pie. But if you're looking to replicate any east-coast coal-fired experience, you won't find it here. This would be a great pizza for large gatherings, for kids' parties, for any event where the crust is going to lose texture anyway due to sitting in the box for a while.

I will certainly go back and try this pizza in the restaurant where it will have its best chance to shine. Right now, it's good pizza that could be a great with a thinner, crisper crust.