Monday, January 29, 2007

Pizza, subs, and wings, oh my!

King's Pizza
W. Potomac Ave.
Brunswick & Walkersville, MD

I came across Kings at the beginning of 2006 during my house hunt.
Owned by a family that moved here more than a decade-and-a-half ago from Brooklyn, King's is one of the two places in Frederick County where you will find truly authentic New York style pizza. The little pizzeria doesn't look like much from the outside, but is definitely worth venturing into.

For those wondering about my qualifications to comment on that - I lived about half an hour north of New York City for 13 years, and had a college internship in lower Manhattan...I know my New York style pizza, and King's is excellent. Certainly worth the 25-minute drive from Frederick if you're a displaced New Yorker, or from that region.

They make an excellent pie, but also offer a menu of typical pasta dishes and the hot and cold sandwiches that often help round out their offerings. If there was one weakness that I pinpointed, it would be their chicken parmesan sub. While the sauce and cheese are nice, and the sandwich is filled to over flowing, in my estimation, the chicken tends to be somewhat overdone and a little chewy. Also, their Buffalo wings would not meet the standards of a native of the Buffalo region. If you truly want proper Wings, you need to get them elsewhere.

Amongst the recommended dishes - the seafood pasta was better than you would expect, the calzone was excellent, the garlic knots are worth taking a flyer on, and King's makes a decent canolli, filling it when ordered so the shell doesn't get soggy from sitting. King's also offers a limited choice of beer and wine for the dine-in customer.

Toppings Pizza
New Design Rd
Frederick, MD

Recommended to me by Ken Busz, the former president of the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce, and a displaced native of New Jersey, Toppings is in a neck in neck battle in my book for the best pizza in Frederick County. Like King's, Toppings is owned by an emigre from the greater New York City area (as I understand it, Trenton, NJ, approximately one hour from the Big Apple).

Sadly, I must admit that I never got past ordering pizza from Toppings, but I also never lived as close to Toppings as I currently do to King's. However, for those displaced from the Philadelphia area, they offer tomato pie on their menu, which also covers a variety of the typical offerings for this sort of establishment. Toppings, like King's offers beer to its dine-in customers.

For the sports fan that is also looking to get a night out with his buddies, but doesn't want to deal with the noise levels in a bar, Toppings does have a television that is constantly tuned into ESPN or others sports.

Pizza N' Wing Shack
Souder Rd.
Brunswick, MD

More conducive to taking out than eating in, the Shack is erratic with its best dish: wings. When on, they make the closest thing to proper Buffalo wings (their 911 wings) that I have had since moving south of Manhattan.

Their pizza is okay, at best, but likely to be good for those trying to watch their calories as it is probably lower cal due to a cracker like crust and its smaller than average size.

4 comments:

PrairieRobin said...

When I lived in Brunswick, all we had to do is walk down the hill to King's and have the best pizza! I havn't had a decent slice of pizza since moving to Iowa. King's is great!

Anonymous said...

it`s wing n pizza shack, and their pizza isn`t all that great.
but Kings, they have amazing cheese steak subs. my boyfriend works there so i`m a frequent customer...maybe even a kings junkie =]

Ken said...

Hey Kevin,

Congratulations on the site. Well done!

Ken said...

Hey Kevin,

Neat site. Congratulations.

Ken Busz