It's awfully difficult to not be disappointed when there is a lot of hype around something new. Such was the case with Galesburg's new-ish restaurant,
Baked. Occupying the old Chez Willy fine dining bistro on Seminary Street, I thought surely this was going to be the culinary epitome of chic pizza. After all, Siri told us it was Galesburg's best restaurant.
I forgot to tell Pat this was "just a pizza joint," as he put it. I had hoped there was a little more to the menu than pizza, but alas there was not. That, and our irritably peckish mood, did not set a good stage. We entered the screen door (yes 91 degrees, and they had an old fashioned screen door) and were directed to the menu on the wall in chalk. Did I mention I hate reading a wall menu when I'm starving and now sticky hot? Either the A/C was broke, or they don't have air conditioning, and you order and pay at the front counter. Not exactly chic. We were handed cold water glasses and a recycled wine bottle of tap water, barely cool, to carry to our table. The good news: two 10 inch pizzas came to just under $20.
We entered the warm and humid dining room to the left to look for a table and the front was packed and blaring loud music, so I chose a table near the back, one of two tables for six. The other table for six furthest back had dirty dishes on it the entire time we were there. A couple of ceiling fans blowing warm air around toward the front, taupe walls with anchors and holes everywhere, water damage on the ceiling, and a paint by number (?) picture of a pizza box composed the decor. A musty curtain was open behind us and some certainly leaded peeling paint doors were used to hide pizza boxes and some other unsightly clutter. The tables and chairs were mismatched and included metal folding chairs, which could be considered
Kitsch but had more the effect of
Krap. I couldn't shake the idea this couldn't possibly have been Chez Willy's.
To be fair, there were 3 sandwiches on the menu: ham, Italian and turkey (I think). We saw some some other customers with a large salad bowl, but I didn't have time to read the whole menu before Pat blew a gasket. I ordered the
Goat Cheese and Herbs Pizza and Pat had a make your own sausage and mushroom.
If Pat complains about the cleanliness of a bathroom, you know it's the pits. As we waited for our pizza to arrive, stripped off our top layers, and drank our warm water, a family of six entered and forced themselves into a table for four and gave us the stink eye. It was hard to make conversation when the table next to us was hard of hearing and their speech accordingly loud.
The pizzas arrived in reasonable time, and we dove in hungrily. For me, the crust was tough and unremarkable. If my crust is thin, I like it crispy, not chewy. I know this is nit-picking but I only saw 1 herb, Basil, not
herbs plural. Pat was okay with his pizza, but I tasted the sausage and it's the one kind I don't like. It also contained green olives which I'm pretty sure he didn't order. Either way, he didn't care, he was so hungry.
I had a great ending sentence for this while I was riding my bike this morning, but it's gone. I am left with two choices to end on...
be warned, Baked, the restaurant refers not to yummy pizza and elegant dining, but rather to the feeling you get waiting for your pizza or
when Siri tells you Wendy's is the number 3 restaurant in town, don't expect much from #1.
