Posted by Michele Humes, January 13, 2009 at 4:00 PM
Mellow Mushroom
Multiple locations, mainly in the Southeast; find a branch here Pizza Style: A thick-crusted style unto itself, with toppings that lean towards Californian Oven Type: Gas The Skinny: Founded by two college roommates in 1974; serving up topping-heavy specialty pizzas ever since Price: $13.25 for a medium pizza with two toppings; $14-$20.50 for a medium specialty pie
I have a feeling that pizza purists will frown upon Mellow Mushroom's giant garlic knot of a pizza. Its thick, yeasty crust is basted with garlic butter, dusted with cornmeal, and sprinkled with powdered Parmesan right before serving. Well, frown away, purists, because the pair of Georgia Tech roommates who started the business have been doing something right: Now in operation for 34 years, Mellow Mushroom has spread across the Southeast, with outposts in the Midwest and Arizona.
Mellow Mushroom's 1974 birth year is apparent in the chain's famously psychedelic decor. There are enough mushroom statues and mushroom references (at the branch I visited in Atlanta, Georgia, the sign to the bathrooms read "Mellow Flushrooms") to evoke, depending on your cultural background, either Lewis Carroll or Amsterdam.
Speaking of Amsterdam: For a Bible Belt chain, Mellow Mushroom's specialty pies seem suspiciously designed with "the munchies" in mind, both in name and in toppings. The "Magical Mystery Tour" and "Kosmic Karma" pizzas both feature the restaurant's signature pesto sauce, and the "House Special", which—in a madcap, hungover mood—I ordered, is piled high with pepperoni, sausage, ground beef, onions, green peppers, mushrooms, black olives, fresh tomatoes, ham, bacon and extra cheese.
Defying expectations, the alarming variety of toppings was handled with restraint. The tomato sauce was, to my palate, a bit heavy on the oregano, but everything tasted fresh, and there wasn't the tsunami of orange oil that I've come to expect from big-chain "Meat-Lover's" pies. The star of the show, though, was that garlicky, unctuous crust—thick enough to sink your teeth into, but still thin enough to eat with your hand. Yellow with butter and stuccoed with cornmeal, this is a crust to save for last, not discard.
A Brooklyn girl at heart, I wouldn't put Mellow Mushroom head-to-head with a tender-crisp cheese slice from Fornino or Di Fara. But, the next time I'm down south, I'll be glad to sample even their most excessive-sounding pies.
[It is worth noting that when some guy in a beard decided to parody, and cross-dress as, Paula Deen, he picked a Mellow Mushroom kitchen as his stage:]
I miss the Mellow Mushroom. Haven't found anything else like it since moving to San Diego. The hummus and pita chips are the beast. I miss their crust, too.
It's definitely a different style of pizza, but it's yummy! Here in Charlottesville, Mellow Mushroom is always busy with a good cross-section of folks. Plus they have great beer selection and specials!
Why are you surprised that there are pot smokers in the Bible Belt? Hadn't you heard that most of the old moonshiners have started running pot as well?
Michele: Nice write-up. It's refreshing to see that you handled this as a true appreciation of Mellow Mushroom and didn't do the usual "It's good for Atlanta but it's not New York" that I'm too often guilty of doing when I eat pizza outside NYC.
@yumsoup - My crust was anything but droopy. I guess inconsistencies are an unavoidable part of any chain that doesn't make all its food centrally.
@thepictsie - I think I'm perfectly entitled to be surprised that there are pot smokers in the Bible Belt, considering that there are also things like dry counties in the Bible Belt! Let's put it this way: It's not their existence that surprises me, it's the blatantness of the references.
@Adam - thank you! Although I did sort of fall victim to what you are talking about in the last line or two...
You've clearly never lived in the Bible Belt, and have some faulty assumptions about the people there. They're still people, and they still do all the same things people do in other places. There are still stoners and queers and freaks in the South, I promise. The big difference is that the people who are likely to object to something like the Shroom are a whole lot less likely to notice the references.
Wow, I remember Mellow Mushroom, tho that was the "expensive" pizza delivery when I was in college compared to Gumby's (cheap) and Dominos (took our student meal credit, winner!) I wonder what I'd think of those local places now. Next time you're in Atlanta try to go to a Fellini's for slices and sicilian. I loved it back then, great sauce, but again I not sure since I had a college kid palate.
When my husband and I were first dating, he moved to Atlanta to work at a startup and worked near the one in Toco Hills. Whenever I think of the Shroom I always remember very fondly his complaints about how they always screwed up his favorite sandwich on their menu: the tofu hoagie with bacon. "Damn it, I don't want sprouts and I don't want lettuce! I just want tofu and bacon! Why is this so hard for people to understand?"
And Atlanta's not really Bible Belt. It's a city, same as any other of its size for the most part. Once you get out into the burbs it's more conservative than a lot of large cities (I'd argue politically more than culturally in many parts of town), but it's a pretty typical big city otherwise.
Mellow Mushroom has delicious pizza, and the reason the crust is rock hard the next day is that there are no preservatives in it. Their ingredients are natural and delicious.
I ate there a lot in college, & while the experience & decor make it pretty one-of-a-kind, I never found the pizza itself to be overly memorable. We have a Mad Mushroom in the Midwest town where I live now, but I've found better local pizzerias, so I haven't been back.
@Michelle- Oh, yes. Dry counties. I'm from TN, home to one of my favourite men, Mr. Jack Daniels. Jack is brewed in a dry county. There's a special law that allows the distillery sell small, commemorative bottles to tourist... but, just not on Sundays. Ha. You can drench pound cake in it and sell it in at restaurants in that country... just can't drink it.
Go figure.
Ps. Thanks to the Noodle Soup Oracle, I haven't died of hunger in The Franceland. A girl can't go out to eat everyday! But, oh, how I miss the South. ("All the sweetest winds, they blow across the South!" -ra.)
I live in a dry county just south of Metro Atlanta. I moved here five years ago from Boston and I'm still trying to figure out how to afford to go home. Anyway, I'm not a huge Mellow Mushroom fan...we have one near our house and I've been to a few in Atlanta. I much prefer Fellini's, which reminds me more of a NY or Boston slice. But even then, I still think all pizzas south of say, CT, don't taste the same, no matter what. I swear it has something to do with the water. The crust just never tastes right to me.
It's odd, I grew up in the South in a pretty large and diverse metro area. The pizza I grew up on was from shopping mall food courts, but this was in the early 1980s before Sbarro proliferation. Most of the places were owned and staffed by real relocated Brooklyn Italian dudes; I remember being awed by the accents and the profanity! The pies and slices were delicious, even though they had to use the Roma distributor ingredients (gummy mozz, super sweet sauce). Now I live in NYC and when I stop into a small pizza shop in the outer boroughs, sometimes I'll bite into a plain slice and instead of thinking "that's a real NY slice," i'll be transported back to NC in 1986!
@meg3j - Thank you for the Noodlr props :) And I couldn't agree more about "the sweetest winds".
Can I just say, generally, that, as much as I enjoy Mellow Mushroom, I am supremely skeptical about the role of "spring water" in their pizza dough. Really? Can somebody weigh in about why this would make any sort of discernable difference?
As a mushroom lover and pizza lover, I can't believe this is the first I've ever heard of this chain. I've been in the south on numerous occasions and didn't see it either. I could never pass up a restaurant with that name! At least the first time. I'd have to cut way back on the toppings, though. Overkill. What, no kitchen sink?
Yay Mellow Mushroom! I used to eat there in Nashville during my college days. Definitely not as good as Brooklyn pizza, but it's a different kind of pizza, and decidely delicious.
Why is there so little recognition of the fact that New York and Chicago- "authentic"- styles of pizza are actually the exception to the rule? As a Midwesterner who grew up on Pizza Hut and Papa Johns and CiCi's and Domino's and Li'L Ceasar's and a plethora of local joints, I think New York and Chicago (and California to a lesser degree) need to understand that their style of pizza is no better than the way they speak English is better than the way they speak it elsewhere.
That said, Mellow Mushroom is a delicious and standout example of the "National" style of pizza, embodied by the inclusion of quality (but accessible) meats, veggies, cheeses on hearty sauce and a bread thick enough to pick up and eat without having to be folded (but pliable enough to do so if desireable).
My only beef with them is the blending of California-style toppings (Jamaican jerked chicken) with National-style pizza (red sauce and mozz). While the regional styles of pizza may peacefully exist side by side, breeding them (such as piling toppings on a flimsy New York crust) just results of an icky mess that is neither tasty nor enjoyable to eat.
There's one of these right by the University of Texas campus, which makes a lot of sense considering UT's the third-highest consumer of marijuana among college campuses... :)
I've never been to it (maybe because I don't smoke pot, and have no desire to), but now that you've mentioned it, it sounds pretty good, even while sober.
I love MM, plus it's only about a mile from my house so that makes it a 'neighborhood' joint. We always order a kosmic karma and a house special -- my 6-yo LOVES the karma!
I love Mellow Mushoom! No, it doesn't taste like NY pizza or Chicago pizza, and no one should expect it to, but it's still pretty darn good in it's own right! My favorite is the white pizza, but I have a total weakness for their calzones as well. And yes, their crust is practically good enough to eat on it's own.
I was skeptical of the Mellow Mushroom when I first sampled their pizza but wow! It's really good. My only complaint is that when I order a spinach pizza, I have a certain expectation. Take spinach (and lots of it), saute it with garlic (and lots of it), olive oil, S&P and then apply it to the pizza. Top with mozzarella, bake - and call it done. I keep forgetting that when I get the spinach pizza from MM, they throw about 5 leaves of raw spinach on it. I'm going to stick with regular "tomato" pizzas from MM. Their crust is wonderful.
A MM was just built in Fayetteville (that's right, home of the Hogs baby), and though it's about a 3 1/2 hour drive, the next time I'm up there I'm dying to try it! Just keep hearing too many good things to pass it up.
FUN FACT: The original website for MM (there is still a link to it on the new site), was designed by The Brothers Chaps aka the guys responsible for Homestar Runner! If you don't know what I'm talking about, take the time to check it out, it's good, clean, awesome humor that is eternally amusing (at least to me.. and a whole bunch of other people).
Oh my god, you made me miss Mellow Mushroom so much!! I grew up in Atlanta, and while the pizza here in NYC doesn't usually leave me with any reason to pine for home, I do still have my Mellow Mushroom fridge magnet with pride of place upon my fridge. Their white pie is sublime. Chewy garlicy crust... ugh, I want it NOW!! I love them, and I love the kids who work there. Always a friendly place.
Re: being surprised the Bible Belt has pot smokers. What planet are you on! Sure, there are SOME dry counties--actually there are very few totally dry counties; most of those those have cities and towns which are wet. In this day of readily available information, ignorance about other regions of this country than our own is inexcusable. This is almost, but not quite as bad as the guy from Pennsylvania who asked me about 10 years ago if I wore shoes to school as a child(southerners are too poor and ignorant to wear shoes, you know!) he wasn't kidding! But Michele, you are right about Mellow Mushroom--it's great pizza!
I live in North Carolina, and I went to college at Appalachian State, which is in Boone, NC in the middle of the Blue Ridge Mountains. They have a Mellow Mushroom that has been there for years. I think it was one of the first ones. Of course, it was expensive for a college student, but it was a wonderful treat on occasion. I had a Modern British Lit. professor who treated the entire class to pizza, since the restaurant was just across the road for campus - we had class on their patio instead of in the classroom! This was a regular occurance for students at ASU. I won a local game show once that included a $50 gift certificate to Mellow Mushroom and my boyfriend and I were able to eat three times with it.... ahhhh... I love their soft pretzels, the delicious subs, the amazing White pie, and the Magical Mystery Tour pizza! Thanks for the website link - I just found out that there is one about 30 miles away from my small town!
I never thought I would have to say this publicly, but I am perfectly aware that there are pot smokers in GA/TN/KY, etc., etc. Apparently my tongue was not lodged firmly enough in my cheek :]
Well I hope you guys are satisfied. Tonight I just HAD to go to MM for dinner. Didn't feel like cooking and BF was up for it. We shared a medium Caesar Caesar and a half order of the appetizer pretzels (which was STILL way too much!).
I love Mellow Mushroom. The jerk chicken-pineapple-banana pepper combo makes a great cold breakfast the next morning. (My usual is the Kosmic Karma, but the bf wanted to try something new.)
@akk328: The thing I found most amusing was that he ordered this about once a week from the same location and was always shocked -- shocked! -- when he didn't get it exactly as he wanted it. ("What the ass is this green stuff?!")
And I'd forgotten about their awesome pretzels. I was diagnosed celiac since I was in college but those are fairly high on the list of things I'd eat first if I could snap my fingers and eat wheat again.
i've missed mellow mushroom so intensely ever since i left atlanta--so i'm nonsensically thrilled to hear that there's a location opening up in arizona!
yum.
Mellow Mushroom is the jam! The Winter Park location has been open for a couple years or so now, and it's always packed. Their tempeh is awesome on pizza, and I love the thick slices.
Oh, Mellow Mushroom. So delicious. I drove 2 hours to Boone once to get a MM pizza when I lived in Greensboro, North Carolina. Last year my boyfriend (who went to college in Boone and loves MM even more than me) and I moved to New York, and wouldn't you know it? They opened a MM half a block from my boyfriend's old apartment in downtown Greensboro.
Sidebar - downtown Greensboro has a cheesy nightclub downtown with a huge, hideous, flashing marquee. The club touts this spot as "Little Times Square." Ha!
Damn, Slice! Here I am in NYC, arguably the pizza capital of the world, and you've got me craving the definitive pizza of my college years in North Carolina. Mmmm...spring water crust.
@CandyBean: I personally know the horrors of the N Club, from my freshman year at UNCG. And Greensboro is a pizza nightmare, except for one place on Elm that used to be decent back in the 90s. NYers would hate it but it was the only decent slice I could find.
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47 Comments:
I love mellow mushroom! They have excellent Tempeh hoagies, and the calzones are hard to beat!
catalu at 4:30PM on 01/13/09
I miss the Mellow Mushroom. Haven't found anything else like it since moving to San Diego. The hummus and pita chips are the beast. I miss their crust, too.
beth1 at 4:50PM on 01/13/09
Maybe it's just me, but I never liked Mellow Mushroom. The crust always got sooo soggy and droopy.
yumSoup at 5:10PM on 01/13/09
The shroom rocks. It's such good comfort food for me.
leisurelees at 5:24PM on 01/13/09
Ah, memories. I ate there a lot during college and always liked the low-key vibe.
marieinla at 5:36PM on 01/13/09
It's definitely a different style of pizza, but it's yummy! Here in Charlottesville, Mellow Mushroom is always busy with a good cross-section of folks. Plus they have great beer selection and specials!
jenberger at 5:55PM on 01/13/09
Why are you surprised that there are pot smokers in the Bible Belt? Hadn't you heard that most of the old moonshiners have started running pot as well?
thepictsie at 6:09PM on 01/13/09
@beth1: Put me in the same camp. Since moving from the Florida panhandle here to SD, I just haven't found a pizza place that tickles my fancy.
Tally at 6:10PM on 01/13/09
Michele: Nice write-up. It's refreshing to see that you handled this as a true appreciation of Mellow Mushroom and didn't do the usual "It's good for Atlanta but it's not New York" that I'm too often guilty of doing when I eat pizza outside NYC.
Adam Kuban at 6:24PM on 01/13/09
@yumsoup - My crust was anything but droopy. I guess inconsistencies are an unavoidable part of any chain that doesn't make all its food centrally.
@thepictsie - I think I'm perfectly entitled to be surprised that there are pot smokers in the Bible Belt, considering that there are also things like dry counties in the Bible Belt! Let's put it this way: It's not their existence that surprises me, it's the blatantness of the references.
@Adam - thank you! Although I did sort of fall victim to what you are talking about in the last line or two...
Michele Humes at 7:04PM on 01/13/09
You've clearly never lived in the Bible Belt, and have some faulty assumptions about the people there. They're still people, and they still do all the same things people do in other places. There are still stoners and queers and freaks in the South, I promise. The big difference is that the people who are likely to object to something like the Shroom are a whole lot less likely to notice the references.
thepictsie at 9:04PM on 01/13/09
Wow, I remember Mellow Mushroom, tho that was the "expensive" pizza delivery when I was in college compared to Gumby's (cheap) and Dominos (took our student meal credit, winner!) I wonder what I'd think of those local places now. Next time you're in Atlanta try to go to a Fellini's for slices and sicilian. I loved it back then, great sauce, but again I not sure since I had a college kid palate.
Big B at 9:06PM on 01/13/09
My only beef with Mellow was how it tasted the next day. The same crust that was chewy the night before turned rock hard an inedible.
adrockuw at 10:32PM on 01/13/09
When my husband and I were first dating, he moved to Atlanta to work at a startup and worked near the one in Toco Hills. Whenever I think of the Shroom I always remember very fondly his complaints about how they always screwed up his favorite sandwich on their menu: the tofu hoagie with bacon. "Damn it, I don't want sprouts and I don't want lettuce! I just want tofu and bacon! Why is this so hard for people to understand?"
And Atlanta's not really Bible Belt. It's a city, same as any other of its size for the most part. Once you get out into the burbs it's more conservative than a lot of large cities (I'd argue politically more than culturally in many parts of town), but it's a pretty typical big city otherwise.
Stijl Council at 11:54PM on 01/13/09
Last year, I returned home for my first visit since moving to Korea in 2004. Mellow Mushroom was on the list of things I had to have during the visit.
If I remember correctly they were one of the first pizza chains to use spring water in their dough.
ZenKimchi at 12:09AM on 01/14/09
Mellow Mushroom has delicious pizza, and the reason the crust is rock hard the next day is that there are no preservatives in it. Their ingredients are natural and delicious.
vox8ight at 12:24AM on 01/14/09
You didn't mention their calzones! Oh momma... Those things are worth getting high for.
sessjess at 3:51AM on 01/14/09
I ate there a lot in college, & while the experience & decor make it pretty one-of-a-kind, I never found the pizza itself to be overly memorable. We have a Mad Mushroom in the Midwest town where I live now, but I've found better local pizzerias, so I haven't been back.
daveandcat at 8:58AM on 01/14/09
@Michelle- Oh, yes. Dry counties. I'm from TN, home to one of my favourite men, Mr. Jack Daniels. Jack is brewed in a dry county. There's a special law that allows the distillery sell small, commemorative bottles to tourist... but, just not on Sundays. Ha. You can drench pound cake in it and sell it in at restaurants in that country... just can't drink it.
Go figure.
Ps. Thanks to the Noodle Soup Oracle, I haven't died of hunger in The Franceland. A girl can't go out to eat everyday! But, oh, how I miss the South. ("All the sweetest winds, they blow across the South!" -ra.)
meg3j at 9:10AM on 01/14/09
I live in a dry county just south of Metro Atlanta. I moved here five years ago from Boston and I'm still trying to figure out how to afford to go home. Anyway, I'm not a huge Mellow Mushroom fan...we have one near our house and I've been to a few in Atlanta. I much prefer Fellini's, which reminds me more of a NY or Boston slice. But even then, I still think all pizzas south of say, CT, don't taste the same, no matter what. I swear it has something to do with the water. The crust just never tastes right to me.
juliebugsmama at 9:34AM on 01/14/09
i like their "pretzels". it's just dough and sauce or with cinnamon and sugar. pretty tasty. i can't say i've been impressed by much else there.
_greenbean at 9:40AM on 01/14/09
It's odd, I grew up in the South in a pretty large and diverse metro area. The pizza I grew up on was from shopping mall food courts, but this was in the early 1980s before Sbarro proliferation. Most of the places were owned and staffed by real relocated Brooklyn Italian dudes; I remember being awed by the accents and the profanity! The pies and slices were delicious, even though they had to use the Roma distributor ingredients (gummy mozz, super sweet sauce). Now I live in NYC and when I stop into a small pizza shop in the outer boroughs, sometimes I'll bite into a plain slice and instead of thinking "that's a real NY slice," i'll be transported back to NC in 1986!
santoslhalper at 9:42AM on 01/14/09
@meg3j - Thank you for the Noodlr props :) And I couldn't agree more about "the sweetest winds".
Can I just say, generally, that, as much as I enjoy Mellow Mushroom, I am supremely skeptical about the role of "spring water" in their pizza dough. Really? Can somebody weigh in about why this would make any sort of discernable difference?
Michele Humes at 10:01AM on 01/14/09
As a mushroom lover and pizza lover, I can't believe this is the first I've ever heard of this chain. I've been in the south on numerous occasions and didn't see it either. I could never pass up a restaurant with that name! At least the first time. I'd have to cut way back on the toppings, though. Overkill. What, no kitchen sink?
PerkyMac at 10:23AM on 01/14/09
Yay Mellow Mushroom! I used to eat there in Nashville during my college days. Definitely not as good as Brooklyn pizza, but it's a different kind of pizza, and decidely delicious.
Laurel E at 10:26AM on 01/14/09
Why is there so little recognition of the fact that New York and Chicago- "authentic"- styles of pizza are actually the exception to the rule? As a Midwesterner who grew up on Pizza Hut and Papa Johns and CiCi's and Domino's and Li'L Ceasar's and a plethora of local joints, I think New York and Chicago (and California to a lesser degree) need to understand that their style of pizza is no better than the way they speak English is better than the way they speak it elsewhere.
That said, Mellow Mushroom is a delicious and standout example of the "National" style of pizza, embodied by the inclusion of quality (but accessible) meats, veggies, cheeses on hearty sauce and a bread thick enough to pick up and eat without having to be folded (but pliable enough to do so if desireable).
My only beef with them is the blending of California-style toppings (Jamaican jerked chicken) with National-style pizza (red sauce and mozz). While the regional styles of pizza may peacefully exist side by side, breeding them (such as piling toppings on a flimsy New York crust) just results of an icky mess that is neither tasty nor enjoyable to eat.
LikesToEatJunk at 11:18AM on 01/14/09
There's one of these right by the University of Texas campus, which makes a lot of sense considering UT's the third-highest consumer of marijuana among college campuses... :)
I've never been to it (maybe because I don't smoke pot, and have no desire to), but now that you've mentioned it, it sounds pretty good, even while sober.
missmanders at 11:25AM on 01/14/09
I love MM, plus it's only about a mile from my house so that makes it a 'neighborhood' joint. We always order a kosmic karma and a house special -- my 6-yo LOVES the karma!
susanova at 11:32AM on 01/14/09
I love Mellow Mushoom! No, it doesn't taste like NY pizza or Chicago pizza, and no one should expect it to, but it's still pretty darn good in it's own right! My favorite is the white pizza, but I have a total weakness for their calzones as well. And yes, their crust is practically good enough to eat on it's own.
kimberlymac at 11:38AM on 01/14/09
I was skeptical of the Mellow Mushroom when I first sampled their pizza but wow! It's really good. My only complaint is that when I order a spinach pizza, I have a certain expectation. Take spinach (and lots of it), saute it with garlic (and lots of it), olive oil, S&P and then apply it to the pizza. Top with mozzarella, bake - and call it done. I keep forgetting that when I get the spinach pizza from MM, they throw about 5 leaves of raw spinach on it. I'm going to stick with regular "tomato" pizzas from MM. Their crust is wonderful.
therealchiffonade at 1:46PM on 01/14/09
A MM was just built in Fayetteville (that's right, home of the Hogs baby), and though it's about a 3 1/2 hour drive, the next time I'm up there I'm dying to try it! Just keep hearing too many good things to pass it up.
FUN FACT: The original website for MM (there is still a link to it on the new site), was designed by The Brothers Chaps aka the guys responsible for Homestar Runner! If you don't know what I'm talking about, take the time to check it out, it's good, clean, awesome humor that is eternally amusing (at least to me.. and a whole bunch of other people).
graciecat at 2:22PM on 01/14/09
Domino's = Cardboard with a miniscule amount of sauce and cremated cheese. That is not pizza.
therealchiffonade at 4:02PM on 01/14/09
@Stijl - tofu and bacon?? On the same item?? Are you seriously surprised that would throw someone for a loop??
I'm not saying it doesn't sound good, I'm just saying... =)
akk328 at 4:17PM on 01/14/09
Oh my god, you made me miss Mellow Mushroom so much!! I grew up in Atlanta, and while the pizza here in NYC doesn't usually leave me with any reason to pine for home, I do still have my Mellow Mushroom fridge magnet with pride of place upon my fridge. Their white pie is sublime. Chewy garlicy crust... ugh, I want it NOW!! I love them, and I love the kids who work there. Always a friendly place.
em at 4:49PM on 01/14/09
Re: being surprised the Bible Belt has pot smokers. What planet are you on! Sure, there are SOME dry counties--actually there are very few totally dry counties; most of those those have cities and towns which are wet. In this day of readily available information, ignorance about other regions of this country than our own is inexcusable. This is almost, but not quite as bad as the guy from Pennsylvania who asked me about 10 years ago if I wore shoes to school as a child(southerners are too poor and ignorant to wear shoes, you know!) he wasn't kidding! But Michele, you are right about Mellow Mushroom--it's great pizza!
musikally at 4:59PM on 01/14/09
I live in North Carolina, and I went to college at Appalachian State, which is in Boone, NC in the middle of the Blue Ridge Mountains. They have a Mellow Mushroom that has been there for years. I think it was one of the first ones. Of course, it was expensive for a college student, but it was a wonderful treat on occasion. I had a Modern British Lit. professor who treated the entire class to pizza, since the restaurant was just across the road for campus - we had class on their patio instead of in the classroom! This was a regular occurance for students at ASU. I won a local game show once that included a $50 gift certificate to Mellow Mushroom and my boyfriend and I were able to eat three times with it.... ahhhh... I love their soft pretzels, the delicious subs, the amazing White pie, and the Magical Mystery Tour pizza! Thanks for the website link - I just found out that there is one about 30 miles away from my small town!
jessleigh at 5:02PM on 01/14/09
I never thought I would have to say this publicly, but I am perfectly aware that there are pot smokers in GA/TN/KY, etc., etc. Apparently my tongue was not lodged firmly enough in my cheek :]
Michele Humes at 5:03PM on 01/14/09
Well I hope you guys are satisfied. Tonight I just HAD to go to MM for dinner. Didn't feel like cooking and BF was up for it. We shared a medium Caesar Caesar and a half order of the appetizer pretzels (which was STILL way too much!).
Brought the crusts home for my pooch. :D
therealchiffonade at 7:16PM on 01/14/09
I thought of myself until a pizza purist until now!
marisa79 at 7:45PM on 01/14/09
I love Mellow Mushroom. The jerk chicken-pineapple-banana pepper combo makes a great cold breakfast the next morning. (My usual is the Kosmic Karma, but the bf wanted to try something new.)
Rebecca F. at 8:00PM on 01/14/09
@akk328: The thing I found most amusing was that he ordered this about once a week from the same location and was always shocked -- shocked! -- when he didn't get it exactly as he wanted it. ("What the ass is this green stuff?!")
And I'd forgotten about their awesome pretzels. I was diagnosed celiac since I was in college but those are fairly high on the list of things I'd eat first if I could snap my fingers and eat wheat again.
Stijl Council at 9:58PM on 01/14/09
i've missed mellow mushroom so intensely ever since i left atlanta--so i'm nonsensically thrilled to hear that there's a location opening up in arizona!
yum.
xxxombie at 11:16PM on 01/14/09
Mellow Mushroom is the jam! The Winter Park location has been open for a couple years or so now, and it's always packed. Their tempeh is awesome on pizza, and I love the thick slices.
tastyfever at 1:02PM on 01/16/09
Haha, the first place on here I've actually heard of and been to. I love Mellow Mushroom!
usinda at 2:20PM on 01/18/09
Oh, Mellow Mushroom. So delicious. I drove 2 hours to Boone once to get a MM pizza when I lived in Greensboro, North Carolina. Last year my boyfriend (who went to college in Boone and loves MM even more than me) and I moved to New York, and wouldn't you know it? They opened a MM half a block from my boyfriend's old apartment in downtown Greensboro.
Sidebar - downtown Greensboro has a cheesy nightclub downtown with a huge, hideous, flashing marquee. The club touts this spot as "Little Times Square." Ha!
CandyBean at 12:08PM on 01/19/09
Damn, Slice! Here I am in NYC, arguably the pizza capital of the world, and you've got me craving the definitive pizza of my college years in North Carolina. Mmmm...spring water crust.
Oh, how I miss the bubbles.
zoverman at 12:11PM on 01/19/09
@CandyBean: I personally know the horrors of the N Club, from my freshman year at UNCG. And Greensboro is a pizza nightmare, except for one place on Elm that used to be decent back in the 90s. NYers would hate it but it was the only decent slice I could find.
santoslhalper at 1:03PM on 01/19/09