Incline Public House

Incline Public House emphasizes its brick-oven pizzas, which it calls “Wood Stone pizzas.” As far as I can tell, this means the pizzas are baked in a gas oven made by the Wood Stone Corporation. Nothing wrong with that it is a nice-looking oven - but there is no pile of wood next to it.

We order two pizzas. The Shrooms comes with white sauce, caramelized onions, roasted red peppers, goat cheese, and pesto. The West Eighth Street Pie comes with pepperoni, and we add crumbled hot sausage.

The crust is thin and nicely charred, looking somewhere between Neapolitan and New York-style pizza. Unfortunately, it does not have much flavor. It is also dense, without many air bubbles, and almost cracker-like in texture.

The sauce and toppings are considerably better. The pepperoni is spicy and arrives in large deli-style slices. The crumbled sausage is similarly spicy and flavorful. Of the two pizzas, The Shrooms has the better combination of toppings. The white sauce, caramelized onions, peppers, goat cheese, and pesto work well together. The only thing holding it back is the crust.

There is potential here. The oven produces a thin pizza with good char, and the kitchen has a strong sense for toppings. But the dense, floury crust keeps the pizza from coming together.