CMH Gourmand – Eating in Columbus & Ohio

There are not many good deep dish options in Columbus and among those, by my count only three good choices. Unfortunately, that number dropped to two this past summer. Tristano’s was my favorite but the business finally closed and the some of the best pizza in Central Ohio was taken off the table.

A few weeks ago I caught a glimpse of a deep dish pizza at Massey’s on a commercial. It immediately caught my attention adding a glimmer of hope that I might be able to go back to three go to options for deep dish pizza. I do like Massey’s and had a notion that they could pull this off. (Long time readers may recall previous appearances of Massey’s in such memorable posts as Buffet Battle: Pizza and Columbus Pizza History a Slice by Slice account).

Could Massey’s deliver? Well in my case I live too far away from Massey’s so I opted for the pick up option.

When I picked up my order, my hopes were high. There was a very noticeable difference in the weight of the deep dish box vs. the other pizza box I was transporting home.

When I opened the lid, the visual and olfactory indicators were trending upwards.

Cognitively I had high hopes, believing Massey’s Godfather had potential to knock it out of the park because Massey’s history literally involves the godfathers of Columbus pizza.

Jim and Dan Massey (original family name was Massuci) learned their trade from Romeo Siri. They opened the first pizzeria (by name) in Central Ohio. Guido Casa (also one of the early godfathers of pizza) took over the Massey’s empire in 1962. Massey’s grew through the late 1990’s then stumbled in 1999 closing all locations. Jim and Dave Pallone (cousins of the Casa’s) have been bringing the chain back in the last 15 years maintaining the traditions and techniques of the original godfathers of pizza going back to 1949.

And the verdict? Massey’s tagline is “The Cadillac of Pizzas” but my assessment of the Godfather is this interpretation is more of a Dodge Dart.

The Godfather features Deep Dish crust, Pepperoni, Italian Sausage, Mozzarella and Provolone and is only available as a 12” inch pizza. The toppings are generous (as you will find on any Massey’s Pizza). For my pizza, the bottom crust was over baked and I found the crust ring, doughy and a bit undercooked. Sections of the cheese were undercooked as well. This version was a bit light in sauce. The overall product seemed to me to represent more of a pan pizza (which was once the rage….back in the day) in taste and appearance. A Chicago Deep Dish purist would not consider this true to style. Most would probably consider this to be a thick crust pizza with a high crust ring. Another style difference is the order of ingredients. A traditional deep dish pizza typically has sauce on the top, followed by cheese, toppings then crust at the base. Massey’s Godfather follows the traditional layout of toppings on top, then cheese and sauce on top of the crust. Overall on a scale of 5, I’d give this one a 3.3.

While not a bad pizza by any means, I’ll stick with Meisters and Wholly Joe’s for my Central Ohio deep dish needs.