BRIXX AND MAXIE B'S

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Debbie is standing at 1424 Westover Terrace in Greensboro.  That's the address for Brixx Wood Fired Pizza.  

It sounds marvelous, doesn't it?  Pizza cooked in a wood burning oven, all smokey and flavorful.  But, there's more to the story than smoke.  There is some disappointment, too.  And flies.  Yes, flies.

Brixx sounds classy.  It is nicely decorated.  It looks like somewhere that would serve a great pizza.

Here's a look at Brixx's "wood fired" pizza oven.  It's not a good look, but it's the best we could do under the circumstances.  There's a glass panel separating the oven from the dining area, so there's a lot of glare in this photo.  That's the reflection off the glass you're mostly seeing.

In the background you see the flames rising from the oven, but there ain't no way it's a wood fired flame.  Brixx's "wood fired" pizza is almost guaranteed to be running on gas, like pretty much every other pizza oven.  If there's any wood anywhere near that oven, it's an amazing wood that never burns down or flickers or has to be fed more wood to keep burning.  And, it's doesn't produce any wood odor, none.  There's no smell of smoke inside the restaurant or outside on the sidewalk.

Debbie has an incredible "nose" for odors.  Her sense of smell is so good she can smell odors that are not even there.  She said she smelled the tiniest whiff of wood outside.  I didn't.  She may have been smelling the rafters inside the building.

More importantly there was not the slightest taste or smell of wood on the pizza.

We each ordered a salad.  Debbie had the Brixx Salad (left).  It was a "spring mix" (in the middle of summer) with pistachios, goat cheese, and croutons with balsamic vinaigrette dressing.  At the top of the plate is a piece of focaccia bread.  I tried her focaccia.  It was flavorful, but it cried out for a little warmth.  It was stone cold.  Debbie liked her salad.  

I was less enthusiastic about my Spinach Salad (right) with roasted red peppers, feta cheese, pistachios and a honey-chipotle dressing.

Here's a closer look at my Spinach Salad.  It was pretty much like cramming giant, elephant-sized spinach into my mouth.  That's three leaves stuck on my fork.  The salad tasted like I had been to the grocery store and stuffed a brown paper bag with spinach and then served it in a bowl at Brixx.

We were given no choice of dressing.  All the salads on the menu came with house-selected dressing.

Here's the pizza we ordered.  It's a RUSTICA.  It's a 10-inch pie with prosciutto, mozzarella, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, and roasted garlic.  All pizzas on the menu are 10-inch.

The crust was thin, but still chewy.  There was plenty of garlic, but I don't remember tasting any mushroom.  It looked very nice, but had absolutely no hint of smoke.  The flavor was good, but not extraordinary. 

I had expected extraordinary from BRIXX.  I don't why I had such a high expectation.  Maybe it was from all the Brixx advertising online.

When the pie was served, it came with a side order of two flies.  They immediately descended on our table as soon as the pizza was served.  You can see one perched on the side of the plate in the center of the photo.  The other one was hovering in the air above the plate, waiting for a signal to come in for a landing, I suppose.

I know it's hard to keep flies out of a restaurant without an airlock-style door, or an air curtain but damn...why did I have to get the flies?  

IT WAS FLIES.  IT WAS A RESTAURANT.   THERE WERE FLIES ON MY FOOD!   UGH!

Be sure to click this image to get a close-up view of one of our flies.

When a waitress was not busy waiting on her tables, she took a break to make up boxes for pizza-to-go.  I watched her for a few minutes.  She was not quite as quick as the guy in the Domino's commercial, but she managed to turn out a short stack in a couple of minutes.  Her time might have been better spent with a fly swatter,

At this point I'd like to make a confession - I eat my pizza like Donald Trump eats pizza.  No, not with Sarah Palin, but with a fork.  I am so ashamed. 

The Brixx Pizza tab was about $35 with tip.  That's a lot to pay for three small slices of pizza each and some greens.

I almost forgot - Debbie and I shared a Red Oak Amber Lager beer,

We stopped at Maxie B's for dessert on the way home.  We bought our dessert to-go.

Maxie B's is located at 2403 Battleground Avenue, which is just a mile or so down the street from Brixx.

Notice anything unusual about the photo?  No, I don't mean the woman emptying the trash.  There's no line out the door.  I've never been to Maxie B's when I didn't have to stand in a line out the door.  Of course I've never been to Maxie B's shortly after 5 PM, which is when we were there.  There was a short line in the shop, but we only waited for a minute or two to be served.

Here's a view of Maxie B's incredible dessert display.  We didn't see any flies ar Maxie B's

Debbie enjoys her half of a slice of Hummingbird cake from Maxie B's.  Hummingbird is made with m bananas, pineapple, and pecans.  It is also loaded with sugar.  The sugar will make your teeth hurt if you eat too fast.

The cake was a tad on the dry side. I suspect this was because we rode the cake around in a hot car and then let it sit on a table for a couple of hours before eating.  The cake was still delicious, as always.

Maxie B's tab was $5.60.

It's a changing world.  This is a bar.  In a grocery store.

This photo has nothing to do with our dining out experience.  I was just blown away by a bar in a grocery store.  This is Lowes on Church St, in Greensboro.  Apparently a lot of Lowes (not the Reidsville Lowes) have opened bars for tasting and drinking beer.  I didn't see any wine, but they definitely had beer by the glass.  

And, they were offering "growler" service.  "Growler" service is where you bring your jug in and they fill it with beer.  Until very recently state law forbid "growler" service unless you brewed the beer on premises.  There was no rhyme or reason behind the prohibition on "growler" service by a non-brewer.  It was just another ridiculous state alcohol law. 

This grocery store bar development was matched by a convenience store we saw on Battleground Ave.  On the outside of the store was a large sign that said "WINE BEER".  Nothing sounds odd about that unless you know state alcohol regulations forbids such signs.  

We would have been skinned alive if we had put a "WINE BEER" sign on our shop in Reidsville.

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