Coming from New York City I’ve had a number of opportunities to indulge in some of the finest pizza known to man.
L&B Spumoni Gardens of Brooklyn.
Original Ray’s of the East Village.
Ray’s Original of the West Village.
Carlos Pizza of the Middle Village.
On my recent trip to Burlington I had the pleasure of dining at a place known as American Flatbread. Or perhaps it was Burlington Hearth. Or perhaps it is American Flatbread at Burlington Hearth. To be honest, I’m a bit confused as to their identity, and I think they may be too.
Identity crisis aside, let’s get down to the actual food. What makes their pizza obviously different is the crust. It is not an actual usual pizza crust, but rather a flatbread crust. Instead of being sliced into the traditional triangle of Neapolitan slices or the squares of Sicilian slices, they are cut in traditional rectangular strips like bread stick slices. I chose to partake if the New Vermont Sausage “pie” (pictured here), and there are only three letters to accurately describe the experience.
OMG.
It’s no secret I am not pro-organic food, but I’m not totally against it either. In this case, it was amazing. The sausage was well cooked and chunked across the entire pizza in a proper proportion to the mushrooms. While it took me a minute to get past the concept of eating pizza “strips”, the crust was an absolutely amazing experience and one I would gladly repeat.
My one and only discernment comes regarding their serving style, on these racks that sit the trays above the table. In our case we had ordered two pies, and my meaty mess sat above a vegetarian preferred dish. I became a little nerve-wracked while trying to slide my strips off the platter onto my plate over the meatless option, lest some carelessness could cause a chunk of sausage to desecrate the meatless entree.
As their menu cover indicates, “Good Food Helps”, and there is a ton of helping going on at that restaurant. It’s on my list of highly recommends.
Allow me to clarify: American Flatbread used to be a single location, in Waitsfield, Vermont. The line to eat there was always long because the pizza is just that amazing. When they expanded, they added more hearths. Burlington hearth just means the Burlington location, as opposed to the Waitsfield or Middlebury locations.
There is also one in TriBeCa now! We could go eat there some weekend!
Ah! Now that whole “Hearth” bit makes sense!
Thank you for solving the mystery…