Bird Pizzeria
Pepperoni and Jalapeño Pie at Bird Pizzeria
Bird Pizzeria, which started as a pop-up, has finally opened their brick and mortar location at 510 E 15th street - just a block away from Optimist Hall. The long awaited restaurant is open Wednesday-Saturday from 4PM-8PM, and serves 14-inch “East-Coast” style pies.
As of today, Bird Pizzeria focuses on to-go orders and outdoor dining. While they have plans to expand the restaurant to offer indoor dining, they only have 6 or so two-top tables on the “patio”. If you’d like to place an order, you can walk up to the window (which offers a great view into the kitchen at Bird Pizzeria) and order your pizza there. With that said, they make a limited number of pies every day, so I do recommend pre-ordering online. Just join their email list, and they will send you think link to their square site to place the order.
The menu is pretty basic - kale caesar salad, pepperoni pizza, white pizza, cheese pizza, and a variety of toppings that can be added to customize your pie. Eventually they will added larger pizzas and more salads - but we all have to start somewhere!
For my first experience, we tried the following:
Kale Caesar Salad: I’m normally not the biggest fan of kale, I find it to be rough and hard to break down, but this was excellent. The salad was simplicity at it’s finest - Kale, Parmesan, and Dressing. That’s it. The kale was extremely tender. The parmesan was high quality, and the dressing was honestly one of the best caesar dressings I’ve ever eaten. I’d probably still prefer romaine lettuce, but the kale will absolutely not stop me from ordering this again.
Pizza: I find pizza incredibly personal, so everyone has their preferences on crust style. For me, I personally like a super thin crust under the cheese, and a fluffy outer crust - essentially a pizza that looks like a Neapolitan, but that has the crispness of a NY style pizza.
With that said, we tried 3 different pizzas. They were not quite NY-style, but definitely the closest I’ve had to NY-Style in Charlotte. Flavor was great. They all had a super crisp outer crust, a thin bottom crust (albeit on the thicker side of thin crust), and were LOADED with cheese.
Plain Pie: This was topped with tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, and basil. We did not add any additional toppings, since I like to try a cheese pizza in it’s purest form. It was solid, but basic. Very even-keeled in flavor, but personally I’d like something a bit more robust - either by using a sharper cheese or perhaps a bit more basil. My recommendation, if you order this, is to add toppings.
Pepperoni Pie: This was topped with tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, basil, and pepperoni. We then added jalapeños, which were SPICY. I love spicy, and these things definitely brought the heat (at least the ones they used on our pie). This was much more my speed for flavor. I might also recommend the addition of the hot honey to make it next level good.
White Pie: This was topped with fresh mozzarella, ricotta butter, garlic, olive oil, and basil. We then added arugula and mushrooms. This was definitely my favorite of the night - actually all of my friends and I agreed that this was our favorite. The flavor was so tasty - especially with the ricotta butter and garlic. SUPER YUMMY. This is the pizza I’m coming back for. If it’s your first time visiting, this is the one I’d recommend you order. (I think the white pizza would also be awesome with italian sausage, onions, and hot honey).
After trying the pizza at Bird Pizzeria, while it isn’t my perfect pizza, I can definitely say it’s the best pizza I’ve had in Charlotte. On the days I don’t feel like making my own, this is, for sure, where I’m heading.
