Review: Firehouse Pizza didn't live up to my expectations

By Stephanie Bassett

November 3, 2008 | Firehouse Pizzeria began in 2001 when two brothers from Cache Valley decided to bring a unique pizza to Logan. Firehouse uses stone-fired ovens to bake their pizzas, pastas, and sandwiches. There are currently three different locations of Firehouse; one in Centerville, one in Smithfield and the last in Logan. I visited the Logan location which is at 880 South Main Street.

As I walked into Firehouse I thought it had a typical pizza place look to it. The cement was a reddish-brown color that looked slightly dirty and worn. It was slightly dark and a little tattered, but still a pleasant environment. We were seated quickly and I noticed fire was painted on the walls just behind me. The table was covered with cheap brown-red laminate.

It was quite loud considering it was 8 p.m. and there were hardly any other customers in there besides us. The clink of plates, the chatter of other customers, the music in the background and the TV that played close to us all seemed to be a little overwhelming and I felt I had to yell so my waitress could hear me.

The waitress was polite and knowledgeable. The menu prices were decent and affordable. I ordered the Cordon Bleu Oven Baked Pasta for $8.99. My husband ordered a large (15-inch) pizza with Pepperoni, Italian Sausage, and Canadian bacon. The large pizza is $10 plus $1.50 per topping. We thought the price was a little steep just for toppings, but we still got it. I was given bread to start which was really good. It had a garlic butter flavor and was topped with cheese and came with two dipping sauces. I was disappointed my husband didn't get bread with his pizza because he quickly ate all my bread since it was only a small amount anyway.

The main course didn't take long to get there, about 15 minutes. I dug into my pasta and took a bite -- and it was freezing. The waitress went to heat it up and I decided to try my husband's pizza. Right off I noticed the sausage was in huge chunks and it looked like we had ordered mini hot dogs on our pizza. I was grossed out by the huge pieces of sausage, and even though there were very few pieces of sausage on the pizza in the first place, I took the rest of them off my piece.

The pizza had a thin crust and did have a unique flavor to it which I assume is from baking it on a stone. The sauce on the pizza wasn't spread out evenly, so I would take one bite and get no pizza sauce at all, then the next bite I would get a mouthful of sauce. There was a lot of flavor from the three meats being cooked on it and overall, it wasn't the best pizza I have ever had. I think it was overpriced for the quality of it and I really couldn't eat more than one piece because it just wasn't yummy to me.

Finally my pasta was returned, and it was very good. It was crunchy from the cheese on the top going crisp and the pasta was very chewy. By this point it was heated thoroughly had a lot of flavor in every bite. It had bacon, ham, chicken, mushrooms, green onion and of course pasta in it. It was much better than the pizza was.

Not two bites into my pasta and I was feeling rushed. The waitress beside us was stacking chairs, even though they didn't close for a good hour and a half still, another waitress behind us was mopping the floor and the workers in the kitchen, who were in plain sight, were also quickly cleaning. We quickly shoved down some food and asked for boxes for the rest of our food because we didn't want to take up any more of their time. We felt annoyed we had paid as much for this food as we did since we didn't even get to sit and enjoy it. Instead we watched them clean and glance over at us every 5 seconds to see if we were going to leave anytime soon.

Overall it really was not that good. It was a decent atmosphere in Firehouse. It was a different tasting pizza though, so if you are a fan of pizza that is original and unusual, this place is for you. Me, personally, I like a lot of cheese and I don't like hot dogs on my pizza, I like ground up sausage. Also I usually like my food hot when it comes to the table, so if you happen to go there, be sure to ask them to heat up the pasta for you. And of course don't go later in the afternoon like we did, because you will be pushed out the door way before they are even near closing time. I think there are plenty of other restaurants in Logan that are cheaper and have better food than Firehouse, so I don't recommend it.

NW
MS