Unless you live in New York, great pizza is pretty hard to come by. Until recently, nothing even approximated good NY-style pizza in Atlanta, GA. But now, that thin, blistery, slightly charred pizza that I crave can easily be found at Max’s Coal Oven Pizza.
Max’s claims Georgia’s only coal-fired pizza oven (capable of producing a blistering 1,000F). Their menu has a stable of standard pizza’s and calzones (both customizable) along with a few sandwiches and salads. All their produce and vegetables are fresh, the mozzarella is house made, and the basil is grown out on the patio–you can watch the chefs go out replenish their supply as they prepare the meals.
Sausage and goat cheese pizza
The atmosphere is casual and laid back. Patio seating is available in front of the restaurant. Local and regional beers are available on draft (with draft root-beer available as well!). The waitstaff is friendly and knowledgeable. They can recommend good toppings and combos if you can’t make up your mind. As a testament to how good they think the food is, the staff often makes the trip back to get pizzas even when they aren’t working.
On this visit we ordered the sausage & goat cheese pie, the Margherita pizza, and a calzone stuffed with garlic spinach, pepperoni, and tomatoes. The dough on both pizza’s was phenomenal; It was the thin, airy, blistery crust I had hoped for. There was just enough chew to give you something to think about without working your jaw. The large slices held the toppings nicely without getting soggy or falling to bits. The toppings were generous, but judicious–good pizza’s have enough on them to give them flavor, but to still let you taste the dough and sauce. The margherita had slow roasted, balsamic vinegar marinated Roma tomatoes with fresh basil and housemade mozzarella. The tomatoes were outstanding and really made that pie.
Calzone
The sausage and goat cheese combination worked like a charm. The sausage had good flavor and was not overly fatty (as many sausages relegated to pizza duty tend to be), paired with crumbled goat cheese for extra flavor, roasted red onions, basil and tomato it really made for an earthly flavorful pie. Onions live in a gray area as a pizza topping. Often, onions are undercooked and contribute a harsh, biting taste that overpowers the other flavors–but not these. The heat was able to quickly roast the onions to mellow and sweeten their flavors.
I was eager to try the calzone as I had no had one in a long time. I figured if anyone could make a decent one, it would be here. The calzone was huge, a single calzone would be plenty for two people to share. Most calzones I have seen in other restaurants end up looking like a softball of toppings wrapped in dough, resulting in an unevenly cooked meal. The edges of the bread dry out by the time the ball of toppings wrapped in the center cook through. Max’s doesn’t fall prey to such a trap. Their calzone is longer and more stretched out than most. This allows for the stuffing to be spread evenly and cook uniformly. All that said, I still am more of a fan of the pizza, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I ordered the calzone again.
Max’s is located in downtown Atlanta in the Luckie Marietta District. Go there.
2 comments
Are you still in atl??????
Nope. I was just there for the weekend (pizza and the GaTech game). Though if you are there, try both Max’s and Varasano’s for some great pizza. I forgot my camera when I went to Varasano’s–so you won’t see a review just yet–but their pizza is top notch too. NY style, blistery crust, but with a bit more chew. Their “Nucci” pizza (garlic, olives, emmenthaler, arugula, capocollo–we got it without the olives) was delicious.