Heating Things Up on Drinker Street With Sausage and Long Hots Pizza
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| The Sausage and Long Hots Pizza at Gold Crown Pizza in Dunmore is an exciting and flavorful experience. |
Gold Crown Pizza is a little pizza shop, bar, and restaurant located on Drinker Street in Dunmore. It’s a place I have visited before years ago before playing softball up the hill at nearby Saint Anthony field, but not a place where I recall having the pizza. If you drove by quickly and didn’t notice the “PIZZA” sign, you might not even know it was there – but the locals do. Dunmore residents and beyond have supported this establishment for more than a half century and they are still true to their roots serving the same small 12 inch pizzas cooked in pans.
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| Cheese pizza at Gold Crown Pizza in Dunmore. |
It took me some time to get to Gold Crown to do a review, as is the case with most of my pizzerias in the queue, but it was certainly worth the wait. We made some connections and arranged a review with the owner who is a great guy and wanted to put his cheese, steak and cheese, and sausage and long hots pizzas to the test. That’s right – another triple review! Check out the video where I team up with Ron Augelli of We Talk Shirty to try this trio!
The crust on all three of these pizzas was the same – a medium thickness, golden brown, slightly crisp, slightly spongy, a little flaky, and all sorts of tender and delicious. In some ways, the crust reminded me a bit of a small, round Old Forge dough. The raised edge crust which rested up against the pan provided a sturdy handle and was really crisp and tasty. This signature crust created a “Golden Brown Crown” around the pizza! I doubt this is where the restaurant’s name came from, but let’s get people speculating anyway! I can see why this crust has stood the test of time – it’s consistent and provides an excellent foundation for the rest of the pizza.
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| The Peppers on the Sausage and Long Hots Pizza are picked fresh and the heat varies by pepper. |
Gold Crown’s sauce is robust and hearty with a ton of flavor. It has a pretty smooth texture with medium body and just the right amount of acidity and seasoning. On the plain pizza, the sauce created a lovely flavor contrast to the cheese blend which had a little saltiness, a little creaminess, and some ever so slight charring that brought out some lovely additional flavors.
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| The Steak and Cheese Pizza is among the most tasty you will find anywhere. |
The Steak and Cheese pizza was expertly crafted with steak evenly distributed so that every bite you took provided a healthy taste of meat. I think the cheese blend on this pizza was tweaked a bit from the plain cheese, but I can’t be sure. They had a really cool seasoning blend mixed into the cheese to provide an interesting and satisfying flavor that really heightened the dining experience.
All three pizzas were really good, but the sausage and long hots pizza was probably the most exciting. George, the owner, advised that the peppers were freshly picked and that there can be some variability in the heat of the peppers depending on the batch! With that advice, I somehow felt I might be entering into a game of Scoville Russian Roulette!
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| The steak on this pizza is perfectly distributed and take a look at that golden brown crust. |
The pizza was neatly arranged with red and green peppers and sausage “coins” thinly sliced and made for a really beautiful looking pizza. There was also some additional seasonings applied to the top, which seems to be a signature of Gold Crown Pizza. They really understand and execute flavor combinations well here. Each bite began with a medly of flavors of sauce, cheese and seasoning, and ended with a pleasant punch of heat. I enjoy spicier foods, and I would consider this pretty spicy, but not “run for a glass of milk and cause a scene spicy.” If you want to see what can happen when a pepper goes down the wrong pipe, be sure to watch the video when Ron takes his first bite!
Overall, it was a great time visiting Gold Crown Pizza. The flavors and character of the pizza and the place for a successful review. Check out the ratings below for how each of the three pizzas scored. Have you been to Gold Crown? Make sure you let me know what your thoughts are on their pizza in the comments!
The Ratings
Restaurant: Gold Crown Pizza
Location: Dunmore, PA
Date: November 2019
Eat In/Take Out: Eat In
Pizza Ordered: Plain Red
Price: $8.00
Crust: 7.6
Sauce: 7.1
Cheese: 7.9
Overall Taste: 7.6
Crispy/Cooked Properly: 7.2
Overall Value: 7.8
Pizza Ordered: Steak and Cheese (Single Crust)
Price: $10.00
Crust: 7.6
Sauce: N/A
Cheese: 7.9
Overall Taste: 9.1
Crispy/Cooked Properly: 7.3
Overall Value: 8.0
OVERALL RATING: 7.8
Pizza Ordered: Sausage and Long Hots
Price: $12.00
Crust: 7.6
Sauce: 7.2
Cheese: 7.9
Overall Taste: 8.8
Crispy/Cooked Properly: 7.1
Overall Value: 7.4
OVERALL RATING: 7.7
