Star Arizona Wildcats football reporter Justin Spears reviews locally-owned restaurants and bars during his travels throughout the season.
SAN FRANCISCO — We didn't have time to try restaurants on the Stanford campus and "Son and Garden" in Menlo Park, California, a popular brunch spot, only did its Barbie-themed tea experiences on weekdays, so we took our "Kenergy" up the street to a more historic spot.
Restaurant: Round Table Pizza
Food: Pizza, wings
The rundown: The latest installment of "This Ain't Tucson" is a review of popular California pizza chain "Round Table Pizza."
Round Table is essentially the pizza version of In-N-Out burger in California, which has over 500 locations across eight states; the closest one to Tucson is in Yuma.
Round Table Pizza in Menlo Park, California, which opened in 1959, is the first-ever restaurant of the popular California chain.
People who grew up in California went to Round Table Pizza for simple meals or with their teammates following Little League baseball or pee-wee football games, sort of akin to Tucsonans going to Peter Piper Pizza in their youth years.
Before you sigh, the Round Table Pizza in Menlo Park is the first-ever location, which was founded by Bill Larson, a former U.S. Navy member and grocery store manager, who The San Francisco Examiner called the Palo Alto-born pizza king, in 1959. Larson, who died in 2006, used every penny from his $1,800 savings account to open the future pizza franchise. Larson sold the Menlo Park location to his son, Bob Larson, in 1987.
During the 1985 Super Bowl, a star-studded matchup with Joe Montana quarterbacking the San Francisco 49ers to a 38-16 win over the Dan Marino-led Miami Dolphins, Round Table Pizza delivered 500 pizzas to Stanford Stadium to feed the children participating in the halftime show, wrote SFGate.com.
Although the original location has been renovated over the years, the bar area still has the same wooden pillars from the infancy stages.
Round Table Pizza in Menlo Park, California, which opened in 1959, is the first-ever restaurant of the popular California chain.
Order: Personal pepperoni pizza with red pepper flakes and parmesan cheese, 12 wings (six lemon pepper, six mango habanero).
Round Table Pizza in Menlo Park, California, which opened in 1959, is the first-ever restaurant of the popular California chain.
The final verdict: There's something about eating food in the state it originated in. There's something about having In-N-Out in Southern California or Whataburger in Texas. It's the "Michael Jordan's secret stuff" effect from Space Jam, when Jordan gave the Looney Tunes water but disguised it as secret fuel to motivate his team. There wasn't anything spectacular about the pizza or wings. It wouldn't crack the top five in Tucson between NYPD, Rocco's Little Chicago, No Anchovies, Frog & Firkin or Empire Pizza, among others, albeit the crust was perfectly executed and slightly crispy. Fortunately, pizza is one of those foods where even when it's meh, it's still pretty tasty.
The wings were better a second time as a postgame meal following Arizona's 21-20 win over the Stanford Cardinal to begin Pac-12 play. Wings — specifically drums with ranch as dipping sauce — are my all-time favorite food, so I'm a snob on that front. I'll stack a handful of spots in Tucson up against Round Table Pizza's wings. 6.8/10.
