Mellow to the Mushroom

The Mellow Mushroom. 212 21st Ave. S

I crave pizza.

This is too bad, really, since I’m a gluten-intolerant eater. Pizza can be veerrrry tricky to come by, and when I do manage to come by it, its crust tends to taste like 1) cardboard, 2) rotten potatoes, or 3) (my favorite) dishwashing liquid. It’s easy to give up on gluten-free pizza.

Enter: The Mellow Mushroom, a southern pizza chain that has recently started offering gluten-free pizza options.

My husband and I decided to give it a try, thinking, “Meh, it can’t be any worse than some of the others…”

It was surprising. Delicious, even. Buttery, melt-in-your-mouth, dough-y pizza crust. I am in love. But, like every love story, there are a few bumps in the road. Is it worth it, for a slice of pizza heaven? You decide.

The visit

There are a few things you should know about the Mellow Mushroom chain in general, before you visit. This will not be your best service experience. Yes, Mellow Mushroom is a drug reference. Yes, most of the employees will act/treat you like they spend most of their time in the back room enjoying some mellowed mushrooms.

That said, if you’re prepared to just eat and enjoy, if you’re not in a rush, and if you don’t mind correcting your order a time or two, this meal is well worth the price and the occasional hassle.

We visited on a Sunday after church and ordered a gluten-free pizza with Italian sausage and green peppers. Since I wanted to get a good feel for the crust without the cover-up of tomato sauce, we went for the olive oil and garlic sauce instead. The waitress was less than helpful when we double-checked to make sure our topics were gluten-free.

“Well,” she said, “if you eat gluten-free, you pretty much know what you can have, right?” Wrong. We sent her back to the kitchen to check, which she did, with a sigh.

She returned a few minutes later and told us that the sausage was, in fact, safe for me. She then walked over to punch our order into the computer and asked, “Gluten-free pizza with mushrooms and green peppers, right?” Uh… no…

About twenty minutes later our pizza arrived, piping hot and smelling SO delicious. But… with marinara.

We corrected the order, and the waitress (who was, by this point, actually beginning to apologize), headed back to the kitchen to redo the order. She left the marinara pizza on the table, which my husband Daryl was only too happy to inhale.

Twenty more minutes later, the perfect pizza arrived.

And oh, it was. The crust held together perfectly–a true feat for a gluten-free pizza. It tasted like the honeyed crusts I remember from my glutenous days at Mellow Mushroom, and the Italian sausage had a good bit of spicy spunk to it. Not enough for a true kick, but plenty to add interest and texture to the slice. The green peppers were sprinkled generously, and the whole effect was delicious.

Service? Bleh. Food? Amazing. Well worth the hassle, if you have the time. They do takeout, too, which is a good way to skip the difficulties and just enjoy a fresh, warm, glutenous or gluten-free pizza.

Happy chowing!