Black Sheep

600 Washington Ave N
Minneapolis, MN
612-342-2625
http://www.blacksheeppizza.com/

Category: Pizza

Rating (Scale 1-10, with 10 being the highest):
Food: 6
Service: 9
Ambience: 7

Recommendation: Good. Our experience was a mixed bag – more downs than ups, but there are a couple of things on the menu worth checking out.

It was our second time trying to get a table at Black Sheep, the Twin Cities’ first coal fired pizza joint, which has now become the talk of the town. Our first time we waited for about 20 minutes and then left, knowing we had another engagement that we didn’t want to get late for. On our second try, we deliberately picked a Wednesday evening, and although the place was still packed, we only had to wait a few minutes. The interior isn’t very large and all the tables are concentrated in an L-shape around the kitchen – you get a great view of the kitchen from pretty much any table and its fun to check out the staff tossing dough and feverishly working on getting the pies to the table. With the large wooden booths, the space does get cramped, especially if you’re waiting for a table or sitting at the bar. A few modern paintings on the wall round out the minimalist theme. The heat from the pizza oven makes the interior nice and toasty, which was great on a cold winter evening (wonder what it will feel like in the summer).

A coal-fired oven imparts a unique char to the pizza crust, and that’s a good thing if you like spots of char on your crispy crust. The menu consists of some salads, appetizers and about a half dozen specialty pizzas. If the specialty pizzas don’t interest you, you can create your own from a list of two dozen toppings. We decided to try three specialty pizzas – the Meatball pizza (but added garlic and ricotta as recommended by the server), the Fennel Sausage, Hot Salami, Onion and Cracked Green Olives pizza, and the Oyster Mushroom, Smoked Mozzarella and Rosemary pizza. The Meatball pizza with the extra toppings was our favorite – good flavor with a nice sweet red sauce. We didn’t care for the Sausage and Salami pizza mostly because the Salami had a very pungent raw meat flavor (from the dry aging apparently) – the owner said he loves the strong salami, but this just wasn’t for us. The Mushroom pizza, which seemed very interesting and similar to a pizza we make at home, was a disaster – heaps of mushrooms and non-existent cheese made this white pizza very dry and bland. When the owner, Jordan, who was greeting all his customers asked how we liked the pizza, we were honest about our disappointment with the mushroom pizza. He offered to replace it but we politely declined. After another few minutes he came back to the table and once again insisted that he make us a new pie and we relented (we told him to serve us his favorite). About ten minutes later he came back with a pizza with Chicken and Pepperoncinis. An interesting combination that we both loved – the pepperoncinis added a nice tang and spice to this pizza. At the end of the meal we were full, but less than satisfied with our meal. We recommend you skip the specialty pizzas and make your own – our favorite toppings were the meatball, fennel sausage, and the chicken/pepperoncini combo. Small pizzas (12 inch) are $9-$13, while the larger 16 inch pizzas are $12-$22. Extra toppings are $2 for the small and $3 for the large, reasonable for meats, but outrageous for things like garlic and onions. And lest we forget, Black Sheep does serve wine and beer to enjoy with the meal.

Service was very good – fast and attentive. We especially liked the fact that the owner was interested in making sure his customers were happy. Just for the record, at no point in our visit, did he know we were going to write a review. He treated us in the same friendly and caring manner he was showing to his other patrons – a big thumbs up.

$$. Street parking is available, but sometimes hard to find.