I didn’t really have a fun fact about myself, so I figured I’d use my platform to share what I love most: pizza.
I asked Lantern readers to give me pizza suggestions for the best pie around campus, and one of my fellow sportswriters, Colin Gay, was the first to reply with one I hadn’t heard of yet: Hounddog’s.
When I looked it up and saw its location — 2661 N. High St. — I realized why I’d never heard of it before. Drive up High Street to Dodridge Street, make a left and you’re in the parking lot, greeted by a classic car with a plaster mold of a hound dog donning aviator goggles.
I walked into the shop reluctantly because when I had called to order, I asked for the square-cut crust slice instead of the triangle-cut. I have to keep it classy and review the most popular kind of pizza at each recommended shop for the fans.
When I walked into the joint, I was greeted with wooden tables, a bartop and walls with a whole lot going on. It reminded me of a cabin that my family rents out for a weekend in the summer in Draper, Virginia — Hounddog’s earned points for the warm nostalgia, especially on a cold day.
Upon opening the box, I was greeted with a mixture of initial thoughts.
The large pepperoni had the most grease I’ve seen on any of the pizzas I’ve reviewed so far. I picked up my first slice and had to set it down just to show the camera how laden my hands were with the slimy grease from the underside of the slice.
On the bright side, it looked like there was a Parmesan crumble sprinkled on top of the pizza — which turned out to be one of my favorite parts. The crumble added an extra level of crunch to the crust, which turned out to be the best of the three I have reviewed so far.
Usually, when the crust has a good crunch, the inside is hollow, but this was not the case for Hounddog’s.
I bit into the body of the slice and accidentally pulled off all the cheese and pepperonis, revealing an element warranting point deduction: there wasn’t enough sauce.
All that remained on the pizza was the glistening white crust where the sauce should’ve been.
The cheese was very thick, but like I mentioned before, it came off easily in one big clump. This shouldn’t have to be advised, but when eating Hounddog’s, bite straight through. Don’t bite and pull — or you’ll be left with nothing but the greasy, sauceless underside.
Unfortunately, Hounddog’s didn’t live up to the hype it was given. However, the crust, Parmesan crumbles and flavor of the cheese and pepperoni saved the score from being in the low sixes.
Rating: 7.6/10
