Review: Winston's - Lakeway, TX

The last decade has seen the rise of some great pizza places that began as pop-ups. When great chefs don't have the funds to open a full brick-and-mortar shop, they can offer their pies in someone else's space. A great strategy is to find a restaurant or cafe that is open only for breakfast and/or lunch, so that the pizzas in the evening aren't in conflict or competition with the primary business; bonus if there's an oven suitable for pizzas already in place.

Co-owner Aaron Creamer with patrons Steve and Larry

Winston's, the newest pizza place in the Spicewood-Lakeway-Bee Cave suburbs west of Austin, is a single entity that embraces that concept of having two different businesses sharing one location. In the early AM, Winston's is a coffee shop/breakfast restaurant. At lunchtime, the transition begins. There are still some tables occupied by folks sipping lattes and pecking at their laptops, but the pizzas are available. 

The lunch and dinner menus are the same, with five starters and a selection of wood-fired pizzas. Let me clarify about wood-fired; Winston's has the large dome oven used for genuine Neapolitan pizzas; this one is fully in compliance with the Italian standards for how a Neapolitan pie can be made, except for the fact that it has a turntable oven which relieves the pizzaiolo from manually turning the pizzas to achieve an even bake.

With all that as background, three of us went to Winston's at lunchtime on a Friday. It was quite busy, and there are few tables for groups bigger than two, but we snagged one. It's a bright and modern interior where you order at the counter and then the food is brought to your table.

We sampled three different pizzas, each about $18: 

• The Truffle, with mozzarella, porcini mushrooms, truffle oil, and sliced Parmesan
• The Supreme, with San Marzano tomatoes, mozzarella, bell peppers, porcini mushrooms, red onion, pepperoni, and sausage
• The Pepperoni, with San Marzano tomatoes, mozzarella, pepperoni, and parmesan cheese, with added sausage, hot honey, and red pepper flakes

The Truffle

While nearly everything except the oven turntable made these pizzas qualify as legitimate Neapolitans, the results were a bit different. The crust was somehow very tender yet more crisp and sturdy; no droop, no wet spots. The low gluten Caputo Italian 00 flour yielded a cornicione that was less puffy and denser than the typical Neapolitan. 

The Supreme

It's a stretch to say that this is Neapolitan/NY style hybrid pizza, but it's in that zone. Bottom line, this crust was damn near perfect. I loved its flavor and its texture and how well it was mated to the other ingredients. 

As the menu notes, the tomato sauce is made with imported San Marzano DOP tomatoes. Co-owner and London native Aaron Creamer shared with us that the mozzarella is Grande from Wisconsin. From the flour to the tomatoes to the cheese and the toppings, all of the ingredients are top-shelf and thoughtfully chosen. 

We loved all three pizzas and struggled to identify a favorite. I was fearful that the Supreme pizza, topped with two meats and three vegetables, would be overloaded, but the sturdy crust was up to the job of supporting all the great stuff on top, which had been applied judiciously. Bell peppers can overwhelm other toppings, but not here. The pizza was perfectly balanced and addictively delicious.

With the sausage added to the Pepperoni pizza, it overlapped quite a bit with the Supreme, but the addition of the pepper flakes and especially the hot honey gave it another layer of flavor. This was an umami explosion, and once again all the flavors and textures were in harmony.

Beautiful undercarriage

A lot of pizza places can offer up a good or even great white pie with mushrooms, but most places bungle any attempt to add truffle flavor. I've bungled it at home, and I suspect that there is a lot of inferior or counterfeit oil marketed as "Truffle" oil. But that was not a problem here! The porcini mushrooms added their own earthy goodness to that great fundamental base of crust and blended cheeses, and then the truffle oil lifted it to yet another level.

I had a few leftover slices, and reheated them in a toaster oven four days later; they were still terrific. Neapolitan pizza generally doesn't travel well, but this was just another testament to that superb crust.

Winston's is not just the New King of Spicewood-Lakeway-Bee Cave Neapolitan Pizzas, it can go toe-to-toe with the best Neapolitans of Austin. It's better than the acclaimed Bufalina Due, better than Pieous, and better than Jester King in Dripping Springs.

Courtyard & playground in rear

The Pizza Renaissance started, by my reckoning, when Chris Bianco began making Neapolitan pies in Phoenix in 1988. His wild success with Pizzeria Bianco inspired others, but the de-commoditization of pizzas spread very slowly, and I started this blog in 2011 to document my disappointing search for decent pizza after I moved away from easy access to the fine pizza in Trenton NJ. 

Pomodoro San Marzano

Over the next decade, craft pizza followed the path of craft beer, as foodies flocked to Detroit style, Neapolitans, and just about every kind of pizza popping up first in the cities and now just about everywhere, including the Texas Hill Country. There's never a reason to eat mediocre chain pizza in 2023.

Now that I'm minutes from this world-class Neapolitan pizza at Winston's and the astonishing Detroit, New York, and tavern style pizzas available at Brack's Backyard (10 minutes west of Winston's), it's hard to imagine that we're not living in a time of peak pizza. 

From facebook.com/winstonsatx

Aaron was nice to spend a lot of time talking to us even though Winston's was buzzing with customers. We enjoyed an indulgent little dessert of expresso poured over a scoop of vanilla gelato, and I'm eager to get back to try the coffee and the breakfast menu. An absolute gem of a restaurant!

Winston's *Coffee *Pizza *Provisions

4900 Bee Creek Road, Lakeway TX

hello@winstonsatx.com

512-355-4282