An Independent Review by JP

well, i was so determined to get some vincent's in me this weekend i decided to give it another try today. called first. the message on the machine said they're in their grieving period and will open back up soon. so i went to trusty old google on my android phone and found that i was closest to the penn hills location. called them and they were open! HUZZAH! so i drove there and got a vinnie pie. considering that this was not a tpc meeting, the review i'm about to give is unofficial and completely off the record. first thing i had noticed was that it was a vincents pizza/rudy's subs restaurant. sounds to me like the entrepreneur couldnt make up his/her (i'm thinking more along the lines of her ;) ) mind on which pittsburgh favorite franchise he or she wanted to open. i'm not a fan of rudy's subs because they give me migranes. dont know why. anywho, i didnt care for that too much. the girl making the pies looked to be about 19 years old and was texting between tosses. a far cry away from the woman that works at the plum location that i'm used to who's been doing it for 18 years and is the only other person that know's vinnie's secret at that location. if she cant come in, the place doesnt open. so as far as the actual restaurant i would give it a 2/5.
it looked more like a shotty sports bar that sold pizza than a "best in the burgh" pizza joint. my wife and i ordered our drinks. pepsi for her and diet pepsi for me. the waitress brought us our drinks and after i drank half of mine down, my wife realized she got the diet and i got the one with suga.....high fructose corn syrup. didnt really bother me, but what if i had been a diabetic? god knows as much vincent's i eat i'm heading down that road. a bit unprofessional, but who can blame her, she's just a waitress, right? well i can. especially since i later overheard her saying she fired someone. she's management.



ordered the pizza (after sitting there for 15 mins) and it didnt take all that long to come, which may or may not be a good thing. vinnie pies take time. i got pepperoni and garlic on half. i asked "do you have the minced garlic?" she replied "uhh...uhmmm garlic? garlic? OH YEAH! GARLIC! yes, we have garlic." so that was fun. anyways, when it came, the first thing i noticed was most of the pepperoni was toward the middle of the pizza. so, what? i'm expected to only enjoy pepperoni the first few bites of my slice? i think not. if i had my way, a stuffed crust pizza would contain 80% pepperoni and 20% cheese inside the crust. not only was it thrown in the middle, they only used grated pepperoni. no circles, no chunks. the only thing similar was the taste. you can tell that the same ingredients were used as far as sauce, cheese and pepperoni. except the crust. it was thin in the middle and thick around maybe 50% of the sides. it tasted nothing like the ardmore or the plum location. the big crusts were mostly hollow and instead of getting chewy and burnt they just got very very crispy. there was still some grease, but nothing compared to what we're used to. all in all, i would have to rate the entire pizza and the whole experience at this place a 2/5.

if you're in a pinch and need a fix, it will work. but other than that i would never recommend going to the penn hills location. you will be very disappointed. with all due respect to our dearly departed, i think vincent should have had a little better quality control of the pies that people put his name on. i certainly would have been offended if i were vincent and i found myself in penn hills and decided to see how a franchise was making a pie with my name on it. my wife will agree that she did not care for it either and that she liked the one in plum a lot better. she did give it a plus for not having the gigantic pepperoni chunks in it like the ardmore restaurant (so take her word as you will, she clearly doesnt think like the club).

one other observation i've noted was that when you get the garlic on the pie, you can really taste a great difference in the grease when the crust is dipped in it. adds a nice garlicy flavor!

the highlight of the evening was going across the street afterwards to rita's italian ice. the one near me closed a few years ago and i havent been to one since. got my mango misto fix!