Dining review: LowBrow Pizza & Beer knows how to do pizza and beer (and wings) — JLB review
LowBrow may still have a few kinks. But those wings — dusted in dehydrated buffalo sauce — make everything alright. Oh, and the pizza and beer, too.
I've never felt more carnivorous or barbaric than tearing through the chicken wings at LowBrow Pizza & Beer.
It was as if I hadn't eaten in weeks.
Crisp, charred skin echoed with smoky heat; the fiery-orange coating of dehydrated Buffalo sauce; that ranch-blue cheese fusion for dipping.
"People stop talking when they try the wings," my server had warned.
He also explained the labor-intensive prep work it takes to make them so good — smoked long and slow, then baked in the oven and tossed in that powdered Buffalo dust as a dry rub before going back in the oven for another browning.
So yeah, I definitely shut up.
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At LowBrow, snark and wit are a way of life.
As is a respect for simple but crafty food, like the wings and their extensive preparation, the breadstick-like "pizza bones" and the creative pizzas with even more creative names (don't fear the Facemelter; it's actually quite sweet).
Here the staff's T-shirts read: "Don't eat shitty pizza." And besides its menu of local craft beers from Naples Beach Brewery, Riptide, Momentum and elsewhere, LowBrow also lists a few "shitty beers" (We're looking at you Michelob Ultra).
You seat yourself at this 100-seat restaurant, its walls marked up with colorful graffiti and displays of work by local artists. And you quickly realize LowBrow isn't like everywhere else. This place is young and hip, a step out of ye old Naples, if just for a bit.
The brick-oven pizza joint opened last month on U.S. 41 East between Bayshore Drive and Airport-Pulling Road in the former Five Guys space (as evidenced by the leftover red awning). Its kitchen is run by a pair of former country club chefs, Chris Jones and Michael Strickland, who have abandoned a world of prestige and exclusivity for a far more laid back vibe.
They're the same guys who started the Porker BBQ food truck, which still rolls around Collier under new hands. They set up a brick oven at the Naples Beach Brewery about a year ago and started experimenting with Neapolitan-style pizza once or twice a week. They gained a fiercely loyal following and the courage to open this place, where they seem to be having a ton of fun.
Even with the salads.
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Their "dad bod salad" comes as a massive bowl packed with lettuce, tomato, pickled onions and banana peppers, along with gobs of creamy mozzarella and wisps of salty-buttery salumi that give the dish its "dad bod" qualities.
LowBrow's pizza bones, meanwhile, are like the less-sophisticated cousin of the breadstick (the one that listens to punk rock and has too many piercings). They're oblong and misshapen in the best possible ways, crisp in the thin parts, chewy in the thicker ones.
LowBrow fires its personal-sized pies (circle-ish and somewhere between 12 and 13 inches) in a 900-degree oven imported from Modena, Italy. They lovingly call it "the fiery pit of hell," and it does wondrous things. It doesn't take long when there's that much heat — only 70 seconds and the crusts have crisped to perfection, blackened and bubbled in all the right spots.
The dough, which is baked with spent flour from Naples Beach Brewery, turns moist and chewy in the center, and it pulls and stretches as you tear away each bite.
It's the kind of pizza that flops in the center under the weight of all those wild toppings. And it's supposed to, my server explained. This is a two-hands affair, and I'm OK with that when the toppings meld together into such masterpieces.
Those toppings are crumbles of spicy chorizo, roasted potato and sweet corn atop the "Cortez the Killer" pie. There's also a smattering of creme fraiche, scallions, cotija, chilies and a lime mayo drizzle — all of those spicy-sweet flavors melding together just right.
My carnivorous side returned when I bit into the Pepper-bro-ni. The smoked brisket (a nod to the Porker BBQ days), the ricotta, the garlic mushrooms, the charred onions, the prized cup-and-char pepperoni that curl up as the edges go crunchy. Yes yes yes.
LowBrow does simple well, too. Sausage crumbles laced with aromatic fennel and spicy chilies clustered on the Maggie's brother pizza, along with melty mozzarella cheese, red sauce, basil and nutty Parmesan slivers.
And there are more nods to LowBrow's Porker BBQ beginnings. There's the Bovine Love burger with its clumps of gooey pimento cheese, which originated on the food truck. And the Porker Pizza, too, with barbecued pork, pork belly, pineapple, pickled red onion, jalapeño and cotija.
LowBrow still has kinks.
Service on my visits was cheery and helpful. But the second took much longer than the first. As other tables came and went, I waited more than 30 minutes for entrees. Still ironing things out, my waiter said, noting a pile of takeout orders that had also poured in.
But those chicken wings make everything alright.
LowBrow intentionally distances itself from the froufrou, high-dollar restaurants for which Naples is known. It's a breath of fresh air — something the owners can feel good about — in an otherwise highbrow community.
Jean Le Boeuf is the pseudonym used by a local food lover who dines at restaurants anonymously and without warning, with meals paid for by The News-Press or Naples Daily News. Follow the critic at facebook.com/jeanleboeufswfl or @JeanLeBoeuf on Twitter and Instagram.
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LowBrow Pizza & Beer
3148 U.S. 41 E., East Naples
•Food: ★★★☆
•Atmosphere: ★★☆☆
•Service: ★★☆☆
•Price: $$
•Call: 239-529-6919
•Web: lowbrowpizzaandbeer.com
•Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Tuesday; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Wednesday and Friday; noon to 11 p.m. Saturday
•Noise level: Moderate
•Etc.: Beer and wine available, takeout available, no outdoor seating; order any pizza (10 inches) with a lemonade or iced tea for $10 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays
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Sample menu
Appetizers
• Pizza bones, $8
• Chicken wings, $14
• Side salad, $4
Pizzas and mains
• Porker Pizza, $15
• Bovine love burger, $14
• Chicken Parm hoagie, $14
What the symbols mean
Our new stars system, explained
★ - Fair
★★ - Good
★★★ - Excellent
★★★★ - Exceptional
$ - Average dinner entree is under $10
$$ - $10-$15
$$$ - $15-$20
$$$$ - $20-$25
$$$$$ - $25 and up