Sad City's Guide To West End Pizza

If there is one food in America that appeals to almost everyone across all ages, it's pizza. You'd be hard pressed to find a town, no matter how small, that didn't have at least one pizza place. Pizza also comes in a massive array of types, quality levels, sizes, and, often most importantly, toppings. While Hartford certainly doesn't have the pizza heritage of its sister city New Haven, it can certainly boast of its share of quality pizza joints. Seeing as how trying all of them, or anywhere even close to that would take forever, (not to mention drastic weight gain and the onset of diabetes) Sad City has decided to break down Hartford's pizza options by neighborhood.


First up is the West End. For purposes of the guide (and our health) we rated each place on a slice of cheese pizza. The rationale? Toppings really come down to a matter of personal preference and if a place can't get a simple slice of cheese right, it really can't be trusted to do toppings any better. So without further ado another Sad City Guide, this one to West End Pizza.

Ed. Note: Pizza was scored on a scale of 1 to 6 beers. Score was based on quality of pizza only! Other factors are listed for reference.

SGT. PEPPERONI
Cost of Slice $2.00
Address: 498 Farmington
Large Pie: $16 (20'')
Delivery: Yes
Hours: Sat-Sun 11am-2am
Pizza: 5 Beers

This is some really good pizza. A nice thin crust pie with the right amount of sauce and cheese. Plenty of seating inside and some really cool posters decorating the wall. The highlight poster is, of couse, the iconic Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover. A really good spot and one of the best pizzas in the area. If there is any downside, the website is almost comically bad, featuring about 2/3 of a page of the menu.

CITY PIZZA
Cost of Slice $2.00
Address: 498 Farmington
Large Pie: $12 (16'')
Delivery: Yes
Hours: M,Tu,W: 11am-12am Th: 11am-2am F-Sa: 11am-3am Su: 12p-11p
Pizza: 3 Beers

While we got a very solid slice, there was way too much sauce on the slice and it caused the cheese to partially slide off. There were also a little too much cheese and despite loving cheese, too much can just gum up the taste of a pizza. City Pizza is a solid option.

BONUS: City Pizza Fun Fact: When you call City Pizza a recording starts off by telling you that "this call can be recorded for training purposes." Now, it is very common to hear that recording anytime you go through the hell of calling customer service of a big company, but a small pizza shop? Sad City thinks that this has to be in retaliation to a barrage of prank calls. Has to be right? Training? C'mon.

The audio on these calls are NSFW and contain adult language. If that offends you, just skip them. But they are really, really funny.

SOUTH WHITNEY PIZZA
Cost of Slice $2.00
Address: 264 South Whitney
Large Pie: $12 (?'')
Delivery: Yes, also will deliver cigarettes and Phillies. Party on Hartford!
Hours: M-TH: 10am-11:30pm  F-Sa: 10am-2:30am Su: 11a-11:30p
Pizza: 3 Beers

South Whitney just underwent a very nice renovation that gave the place a complete facelift. South Whitney has fresh new decor and seating and a cool bar area on one side. We were pleased to see an open kitchen. There is no doubt that we feel better about ordering take out from a nice clean place with a kitchen the customers can see inside than some place with peeling paint where you can only glimpse the corner of a dirty looking stove in the back. We could assume this encourages good food handling, cleanliness, and fresh ingredients but then again Taco Bell lets drive through customers see right into the kitchen and has no compunction whatsoever about dispensing most of the ingredients of a chalupa through a caulk gun, so who are we to know anything?

South Whitney actually cuts their "slice" into two slices, which is helpful if you are eating while walking or driving. (Ed. Note: If you insist on eating and driving, please until you are sitting at a light on Farmington to take your bites, you'll have ample opportunity. Safety first!)

It's a good, solid slice of cheese. There was just a tad too much grease but not a bad slice at all. The rest of the food we saw and the menu looked very appetizing and we wouldn't mind hanging out at the bar and giving more a try, but this guide is strictly based on a slice of cheese. Another solid option.

SISSON AVE PIZZA
Cost of Slice $2.50 + 50 cent surcharge if you use a credit or debit card on an order under $10.
Address: 479 Farmington
Large Pie: $12 (16'')
Delivery: Yes, also will deliver cigarettes and phillies. Party on Hartford!
Hours: M-TH: 10am-11:30pm  F-Sa: 10am-2:30am Su: 11a-11:30p
Pizza: 3.5 Beers

There always seems to be some sort of confusion going on at Sisson Pizza. First it took us four tries to actually get a slice. Four tries? The first time we tried was on the night of Snowtober. Sisson Ave was open that evening but they weren't doing slices. That's fine, we'll give them a pass on that, you have to figure they were getting bombarded with delivery orders that night, so a total pass. The next time we went they had apparently just opened and had no slices available. Ok. Don't see what it takes to start a cheese pizza, but maybe they had opened five minutes before we got there. On the third trip we had no cash and were annoyed by the service charge so we passed.

On the fourth try we finally got our slice of cheese. For all the irritation that went into getting a slice at Sisson Pizza, they do make a pretty solid pizza. Really big slices too. Curiously, while they are located on Farmington Ave, Sisson pizza seems to think they are located on Framington Ave. It happens.

A-1 PIZZA

Cost of Slice $2.50
Address: 274 Farmington
Large Pie: $11.45 (16'')
Delivery: Yes, $1 delivery charge
Hours: M-SU: 11am-11pm
Pizza: 2 Beers


When we got to A-1 we stood at the counter for a solid five minutes before any of the four employees acknowledged us. When we got our slice, well it was big. It was also greasy and the cheese was a little burnt. It wasn't terrible, but A-1 Pizza should be your plan B or C.

PIZZA HUT & DOMINOS

Cost of Slice: Who cares.
Address: In the Taco Bell and the plaza across the street.
Large Pie: Will make you sick.
Delivery: Doesn't matter
Hours: Open very late.
Pizza: 0 beers

We have been subjected to Pizza Hut and Domino's two or three times in our lives. It's gross.

BONUS: Vegas Blvd. has awesome, awesome pizza. You will have to order a whole one and they don't always make pizza. Not too mention it can be tricky to figure out when Vegas Blvd is open. But if you get a chance, the pizza is excellent.