REVIEW

Bravo Pizza: Get Fired Up

South County’s wood-fired pizza craze is smokin’ hot

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It’s time for another pizza review. What’s that you say? I just reviewed a pizza place two months ago? Well then it must be an embarrassment of riches for pizza lovers because I just ate five pizzas (with a little help from my family) at Bravo Wood Fired Pizza in North Kingstown, and South County has definitely got itself another winner on its hands.

Technically Bravo Wood Fired Pizza has been around for several years - since 2009. At least its dough and main pizzaiola, Gregg O’Neill, has been around for a while. You may have seen the Bravo pizza oven trailer out at farmers’ markets and other area events where O’Neill has been cranking out some good pizza pies. Last year Bravo took over a vacant former coffee shop (they’re even using the drive thru window!) on Post Road in North Kingstown and built a permanent location for wood fired pizza, plus a few other dishes. Open for lunch and dinner six days a week, it’s even better than the trailer has been for the last five years, and that’s saying something.

While the exterior has that drive thru and a coffee chain look, the interior has been nicely redesigned with the oven being the central focal point of the place, as it should be. It’s a fast, casual restaurant where you order at the counter, but it never felt rushed or unhelpful at all during our visit. On the contrary, the staff came over to our table several times to check on things and deliver the multitude of pizzas we ordered.

As with my Cobblestones review two months ago, a quick reminder that when I’m talking pizza here I’m talking about Neapolitan-style cooked in an oven with a wood fire at around 800-1,000 degrees with some great char on the edges and bottom. If you like that style of pizza as much as I do then Bravo Wood Fired Pizza is another spot you have to get to.

Like I said before, it’s an embarrassment of riches for pizza lovers in South County.

Honestly, I loved all five pizzas we tried, even the big combo of pesto, calamata olives, onions and feta cheese that we threw together. In addition to that we had The Classic, The Sisters, The Parma and a straight up cheese and pepperoni pizza for my daughters. All were priced around $13-$14 for a 12” pie, and the toppings were very good. The restaurant tries to use as many local products as possible with meats from Daniele, cheeses from Narragansett Creamery and sodas from Empire Bottling Works.

But let’s start with the dough though, because you can’t have a pizza without the dough. Bravo’s dough had some nice chewiness to it and didn’t become too crunchy or brittle from the intense heat. It felt to me like it had a very tiny hint of sweetness, which may be more due to the toasting it receives from the wood heat than anything in the dough. The dough also maintained its structure well even when cut and lifted. Pizza dough doesn’t need to be rocket science, but it needs to be smartly done, which this was.

If you’ve had Narragansett Creamery’s mozzarella or Daniele’s prosciutto then you know how good the toppings they use at Bravo are on their pizzas. If you haven’t those food items, then you really need to get out and buy some of the excellent products made right here in Rhode Island that are exported to many other parts of the country. The sweet Italian sausage on The Classic is made locally and it shone through without being greasy or heavy. The Salty Sea Feta that Narragansett Creamery makes went beautifully on the Greek-style pizza. One of the principles behind making great pizza is to use great ingredients. It’s fascinating to see, as more local ingredients become recognized for their excellence, that pizza like Bravo’s can be made so perfectly.

Bravo Wood Fire Pizza also offers pastas and salads, as well as locally made gelato, all of which we all want to definitely head back and try another time, though I’ll probably stick to more of that excellent pizza. In the past few years we’ve gone from no great wood fired pizza places in Rhode Island to several, and Bravo Wood Fired Pizza is right near the top of that pack.

Bravo Wood Fired Pizza. 6689 Post Road, North Kingstown. 398-2500.

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