When I had my first Great Plains Pizza years ago I thought it was great. I pretty much have ordered the thick crust pizza, almost always the wheat crust with combo ingredients. In recent years that pizza has just seemed like too much for my tastes. Too much cheese. Too much crust once the novelty of adding honey wore off. It was good, but not good enough to get me coming back. And the GF was not a big fan either.
Sunday night is pizza night for us. Seldom are we in Ames on pizza night, but here we are. So lacking any other great pizza ideas I decide that it's worth trying a thin crust pizza from Great Plains. So looking at the menu online, it suggests the the "Sam's Recipe" crust.
So Sam's crust it was under a traditional sausage & mushroom pizza. I am often critical of the sausage used at many pizza joints. You know the kind that is frozen pellets that look and taste more like dog food than fresh sausage. Well this is what Great Plains has to say about their pork sausage:
I ordered it for carry out. It may have taken 15 minutes to get to the front of the line to let them know I have a carry out. Turns out it was done when I got there and it had me worried it would be cold when I got home. Fortunately it wasn't. From the very first bite this pizza was great. The pork sausage was great. I am now asking myself (and the GF) if there is any better pizza in Ames. It won't be years until I get my next Great Plains pizza like it was for this one. And you can be sure it will be the thin Sam's Recipe crust. Probably some combination with sausage, but I'm not ruling out giving some other toppings a try.
I will no longer think "overrated" when people sing the praises of Great Plains Pizza. It has now joined the leaders as one of my favorite pizza places. And as a bonus it is less expensive than my other favorites such as Zoey's, Tomaso's and Leonardo's in Cedar Rapids.
Sunday night is pizza night for us. Seldom are we in Ames on pizza night, but here we are. So lacking any other great pizza ideas I decide that it's worth trying a thin crust pizza from Great Plains. So looking at the menu online, it suggests the the "Sam's Recipe" crust.
From their website: Sam's Recipe (since it was his basic offering, we named it after the man who got us started in the pizza business) is what we call our classic thin white crusted pizza. If you're a traditionalist or if you're not really hungry enough for one of our thick pizzas (this time), Sam's is just the thing to satisfy your pizza appetite.
So Sam's crust it was under a traditional sausage & mushroom pizza. I am often critical of the sausage used at many pizza joints. You know the kind that is frozen pellets that look and taste more like dog food than fresh sausage. Well this is what Great Plains has to say about their pork sausage:
It means going to the extra effort of having our sausage ground and seasoned to our own specifications, not using some soy-added "pork topping.
So pork sausage it is. Add mushrooms because no ingredient should be forced to go it alone.
I ordered it for carry out. It may have taken 15 minutes to get to the front of the line to let them know I have a carry out. Turns out it was done when I got there and it had me worried it would be cold when I got home. Fortunately it wasn't. From the very first bite this pizza was great. The pork sausage was great. I am now asking myself (and the GF) if there is any better pizza in Ames. It won't be years until I get my next Great Plains pizza like it was for this one. And you can be sure it will be the thin Sam's Recipe crust. Probably some combination with sausage, but I'm not ruling out giving some other toppings a try.
I will no longer think "overrated" when people sing the praises of Great Plains Pizza. It has now joined the leaders as one of my favorite pizza places. And as a bonus it is less expensive than my other favorites such as Zoey's, Tomaso's and Leonardo's in Cedar Rapids.
