Lizza's Mezzo Mezzo Pittston

There’s Something Sweet About This Little Restaurant!

Lizza’s Mezzo Mezzo, like many other pizzerias, has been on my list of places to try for some time and I am on a mission to cross off a bunch of pizzerias. Lizza’s is one that has been recommended by the NEPA nation quite a few times so I had to get there and give it a try. After deciding I was going to follow through on this, I hopped in the pizza mobile and headed the back way to Pittston. The Mezzo wasn’t hard to find right on main avenue, but parking proved to be a little on the tricky side. Thanks to my review partner who pointed out the narrow driveway on the side of the building, we got parked without issue.

As we entered the restaurant the special board caught my eye. It featured two pizzas – one round large pizza and one square old forge style pizza for $19.99. We were only coming for one pizza, but this deal was just too good to pass up! After passing the special board, I took a look around at the place and it was pretty cool. They had a small bar that sat about 8 people and 5 or 6 tables on the low side and maybe 6 more tables on the high side. The place was small, but it really did fit quite a bit inside and did not feel cramped at all. Right away I wished there was a place like this in my neighborhood because it had that small town throwback feel and the smell of the wings was intoxicating!

The service was very fast, friendly, and attentive and the pizzas were both out in no time. I should mention that the pizzas were record-setting hot and steaming! I have very little feeling in my fingertips after years of getting burned on pizza ovens and picking up a hot pizza right out of the oven is usually no issue, but I had to set this pizza pan back down quickly after trying to move it around for photographing!

Both the round and square pizzas had a deep red sauce drizzled on top. The sauce seemed to be the same recipe on both pizzas. The cheese blends were different, but it was interesting how different the pizzas were despite having the same sauce on both. We’ll start with the round pizza. The crust was a slightly thicker New York Style crust which had a consistent thickness and smaller bubble pattern throughout. It was slightly more dense than most NY style crusts, but it wasn’t heavy at all. This crust was excellent in my estimation as it was crisp, resilient to the weight of the sauce and cheese, cooked through, and tender. The cheese seemed to be some type of blend of perhaps mozzarella and maybe a cheddar and added a nice saltiness to the equation. The very sweet sauce sort of stuck out a little too much for me and threw it a little out of balance. The crust laid a great foundation for this overall solid pizza.

The square pizza was cooked absolutely perfectly. It was light and crisp with a wonderfully golden brown bottom and edge. The sweet sauce really worked on this pizza as there was more crust to absorb the pervasive flavor and the cheese blend provided enough saltiness to offset the sweetness and balance out the pizza. Although my favorite component of the 2 pizzas sampled was the crust of the round pizza, I preferred the Old Forge style tray of pizza as it had better balance and flavor. If you like a sweeter sauce on pizza, you really need to try Lizza’s Mezzo Mezzo. I already know what I’m ordering on my return visit – hot wings and a tray of square pizza! If you’ve tried Lizza’s, you have to let me know your thoughts in the comments! I love to hear about your experiences and talk pizza!