Fairfield Pizza

I am a big fan of Jungle Jim's International Market on Route 4, and naturally I also enjoy trying unfamiliar pizzerias. Combining the two activities seems like a perfect idea. The results, unfortunately, are mixed. The original plan was to visit Cassano's and watch the Reds game, but Cassano's does not open until four on Sundays. We instead travel about a mile to Fairfield Pizzeria, a hole-in-the-wall recommended by a coworker.

Fairfield Pizzeria has an impressively large menu: pizza, calzones, hot and cold subs, pasta, soup, salads, chicken, fish, and veal. The pizza is thin and cut into squares, in the broad family of Midwestern tavern styles found around Dayton and St. Louis.

We begin with the cheese-covered garlic bread for $4. Unbeknownst to us, the order includes two enormous pieces - possibly more food than the pizza itself. It is not refined, but it delivers exactly what one wants from this sort of appetizer: lots of bread, lots of cheese, and a perfectly acceptable meat sauce. The quantity is ridiculous, making it an excellent deal.

For the pizza, we order a 16-inch Works with pepperoni, sausage, green peppers, mushrooms, and onions. The pizza arrives heavily topped and blanketed with cheese nearly to the edge (There is no shortage of food here!)

Unfortunately, it tastes like a particularly bad version of LaRosa's. The thin crust has the uniform shape and texture of a frozen shell, with little browning or character. The sauce is not actively unpleasant exactly, but only because it has almost no flavor. A mixture of mozzarella and provolone covers the pizza, yet the cheese tastes tired rather than rich. The toppings are plentiful but have the same sad quality ...and the whole pizza is surprisingly dry despite all that cheese.

We eat only about half, partly because the garlic bread has already constituted a full meal and partly because the pizza gives us little reason to continue.

The service is fine, the dining room is acceptable, and the Reds win. Still, the food is simply not good. I cannot recommend Fairfield Pizzeria for pizza. But should you find yourself in Fairfield with several hungry people and a powerful desire for an unreasonable amount of cheese-covered garlic bread, it may still have something to offer.