Revd Up Pi

On our way home from a friend’s birthday party, Ken and I decided we wanted to get a late night snack before going to bed. Our usual snack procurement involves placing an order for pizza on seamlessweb when we get in the cab so the food arrives around the same time we get home (I imagine we’ll actually make the walk across the street to the place we order pizza from when the weather gets nicer, but for now, it’s way too cold to walk outside). Last Saturday, we decided to try a new-ish pizza place close to the apartment: Revd Up Pi.

The place was completely empty when we arrived and we almost walked out but decided to stay because it was too cold to walk up the street to Pizza 33. I didn’t know the concept of the restaurant before walking in, but quickly found out they have a healthy spin on pizza: low fat cheeses, turkey pepperoni instead of the real stuff, and whole wheat crusts and pastas. I gave it a try by ordering the marathon grandpa pizza (made with a whole wheat crust and low fat mozzarella):

The crust was really crunchy (almost cracker-like) and the cheese was a tad rubbery but didn’t completely lack flavor. It actually reminded me of the pizza from Za’s (in Champaign) that I used to eat all the time.

Ken ordered the turkey pepperoni calzone because I wanted to order that and the slice of pizza and couldn’t decide which to get:

The turkey pepperoni was much drier than regular pepperoni (there was absolutely no grease oozing from the calzone) and I thought it was pretty good but also a tad on the dry side. They definitely overdid it on the turkey pepperoni (even though it’s supposed to be healthier, it’s definitely just as sodium packed as the regular stuff). The prices were a little shocking: a slice of pizza was around $4.50 and the calzone was $8.50, which seems a little high for both (I don’t think I’ve ever eaten a calzone in the city but they can’t be that expensive, right? It seemed like it was a pizza that was wrapped up).

I found a discount on yelp right as we were checking out but the server wouldn’t let me use it because he already ran the transaction through. The restaurant has a ton of coupons and specials (I’d check yelp, facebook, twitter, and foursquare before placing your order) – I’d return for a quick bite to eat, but not without a discount.