Review: Davis Bros. Pizza

The pizza at Davis Bros. Pizza in East Peoria, IL is the oddest pizza I’ve ever had. That doesn’t mean that it’s not good. It is, but I’ve never had anything like it before.

Before I talk about the pizza, let me talk about the reputation Davis Bros. has developed over the years. The pizzeria started as a hole-in-the-wall bar in downtown East Peoria in 1948. They developed a unique pizza recipe that became their calling card.

Former East Peoria resident Kathy Trojack tells of an urban legend that was circulating when she was in high school that claimed that Davis Bros. used dog food on their pizzas. Like most urban legends, the claim is probably not true, but Kathy says the one thing she is sure about is that the original location for Davis Bros. was disgusting. Because of that, Kathy won’t eat there.

Davis Bros. new location isn’t fancy, but it is large and clean. The restaurant was pretty busy the night we were there, which may explain the spotty service. I think the problem was too many customers and too few waitresses. The waitresses that were there were just spread too thin.

Little Lou, Kim and I shared a sausage pizza with extra cheese. The menu at Davis Bros. is very confusing, at least for me. Since the sausage pizza doesn’t come with sauce (which I’ve never heard of before), we technically ordered a deluxe with no onions or green peppers. Thankfully, our waitress knew what we wanted, so we ended up with what we wanted rather than what we ordered.

As I said, the pizza at Davis Bros. is different. The crust is super thin, but not really crunchy like a New York-style cracker thin crust.

It’s hard to describe the sauce because Davis Bros. uses so little of it on their pizzas. This makes for a very dry pizza.

The sausage on our pie was very finely ground and there was an entire layer of it on our pie. The sausage had a good taste and gave the pie the majority of its flavor. The pizza was topped with two different types of cheese, mozzarella and American (or cheddar), I think. Even though there were two types of cheese, there wasn’t as much as I would expect considering that we ordered extra cheese.

Kim makes a good point about Davis Bros. Pizza. She says they make the kind of pizza you would make at home if you really didn’t know how to make pizza. Yet, they’ve built a business on their pizza that has lasted nearly six decades. Whether or not you like the pizza at Davis Bros. Pizza, it’s hard to argue with their success.

Overall, Davis Bros. Pizza is good, but not exceptional. It definitely is unique. Because of that, I really can’t give it a rating. It’s like trying to rate a dessert pizza with the same scale as a regular pizza pie. It’s pizza, but not really.