by Karen Welch — Senior Content Producer
Since I came to Live Here at Panhandle PBS – which is the name of our local public affairs television show – I’ve had countless and continual requests to fire back up my reporting about what’s going on in the business community.
(For those of you unfamiliar, I spent a number of years following business news for the local newspaper.)
So welcome to Biz Here, a regular blog that will keep you up to date on business openings and closings, mergers, real estate, development and construction happening in and around Amarillo.
I chose my verb carefully with this inaugural entry because I popped into 1000 Degrees Neapolitan Pizza, just-opened spot at 2207 S. Western St., for lunch Monday.
The franchise will celebrate its grand opening Thursday with a Free Pizza Day, offering a free 10-inch custom pie and a chance at more pizza prizes.
We chose two distinctly different pizzas to try. The White Out combines extra virgin olive oil, shredded mozzarella, parmesan, fresh mushrooms and garlic. And the Sausage & Peppers featured a nice Italian sausage, red and green peppers, red onion, mozzarella and San Marzano marinara.
But the pizza is worth working your table. While not cracker crispy, the crust walks that line between being thin and a little doughy – like airy bread you just want to keep eating. The ingredients were fresh, making for flavorful bursts of garlic and spice and cheesy goodness. We’ve already identified more combos we want to try.
The restaurant features a deli-style assembly line where you can watch workers put your pie together and select ingredients, if you’re doing a create-your-own. Our pizzas went down the line, into and out of a giant oven pretty quickly and were delivered hot to our tables.
The set-up in the dining room is no-frills. You fill your own drinks, grab your own napkins, paper plates and cutlery and haul your own cheese and pepper shakers.
The small 10-inch pies run $8 to $9, while the larger 14-inch sizes generally were $15 to $17. The menu offers salads, but we didn’t try those on this visit.
One thing seemed a bit awkward about the space: Screens showing the menus were not positioned where you could read them while waiting in line. That might be a problem as the lines grow, as they inevitably will.
The restaurant had a soft opening before the end of March. You can find them on Facebook under 1000 Degrees Neapolitan Pizza of Amarillo. Orders for pick-up are accepted online and by phone. It’s storefront is located in the Western Crossing shopping center on Western at Interstate 40.
Hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday.
* Karen Welch is senior content producer for Panhandle PBS. She can be reached at karen.welch@actx.edu, @KWelch806 on Twitter or https://www.facebook.com/KarenSmithWelch/.
