Ginny's Neighborhood Pizza Joint - January 27, 2023

Ginny's is relatively new to Westmoreland County. It opened in 2019 ten minutes down the road from us in Export, PA. We don't lack pizza joints in the eastern part of the county, but while Ginny's has "pizza" in its name, it offers a fairly extensive menu of other foods. 

The restaurant is also right on the edge of the suburb of Murrysville, a high-median-income 'burb where people like to see and be seen (our home technically sits in Murrysville, but we're definitely not part of the hip crowd). Plus it sits directly on the Westmoreland Heritage walk/bike trail, and offers outdoor seating. From the start, Ginny's has been popular. It's hard to get in on a Tuesday night without a reservation, much less a Friday.

So when we learned that my friend Laura from Philadelphia was staying the night on her way home from a trip, we decided to make an evening of it and give the pizza a try (we'd been there once before but didn't eat pizza). Susie and Gary, friends of ours who like Ginny's, were happy to also join.

We arrived at 6:30 and our table was ready. The dining room was full, as was the back porch which was of course closed in for winter. The dining room atmosphere is bright and fun, as is the atmosphere at the small bar on the other side of the entrance. But OH MY was it loud. A few members of our party have some hearing loss, so our conversations were a little constrained.

As expected the menu was large. Chip and I planned to order our standard sausage and mushroom pizza, but to my dismay the only sausage on offer was hand-pinched hot sausage. That sounded like too much for me, so we opted for bacon and mushroom. Laura ordered a brisket burger, Susie a Reuben, and Gary opted for the ravioli. We also ordered fried zucchini for the table, another staple at Italian and pizza places everywhere and a good gauge of a restaurant.

Ginny's offered a nice cocktail menu. Laura and I are both bourbon fans, so I ordered a smoked old fashioned and she ordered a muddled one. Confession: I'd never had a smoked cocktail, and neither had Laura, so we were excited to see and taste one. The drinks arrived quickly, mine with its little cocktail smoker. What a clever gadget! The chips were very fragrant and when I removed the top, it was quite smoky. And more importantly, the drink was incredibly yummy.

The zucchini only took about 10 minutes and it came to the table with five good-sized planks. The breading was thick and adhered well to the crisp and fresh zucchini, but it was surprisingly bland. However, the shaved parmesan and horseradish dip elevated the taste and so I'd probably order it again.

Our entrees and pizza arrived only a few minutes after we finished the zucchini. The staff is clearly used to large crowds and kept things moving beautifully. When I asked how the sandwiches and pasta were the response from my tablemates was a uniform "Good!" but that was as much as I got (remember, it was loud) so I'll focus on the pizza. 

We ordered a large since we definitely wanted leftovers for Saturday. The large really was large - a 12-cut, 16-inch pie.

Ginny's doesn't advertise a wood-fired oven, but they definitely use some sort of specialty pizza oven because the crust was deliciously charred. Not charred in the "wow look at my burnt pizza" way, but in the "ever so slightly charred on the top crust" way. I thought it was delicious. Chip is not a fan of wood-fired pizza, so he was a bit disappointed.

The crust was thin but firm. In fact, I tried to cut the pizza with my fork as I often do, but it wouldn't cut. I was thus expecting the crust to be a little tough or chewy, but it wasn't. Just one of those pizza mysteries, I guess.

The toppings were delicious. The mushrooms were fresh, and the bacon - oh my goodness, the bacon! These were not bacon crumbles or bacon bits, but small strips of bacon that had been cut into 1-inch or larger pieces. I've never had bacon on pizza like this and now I never want my pizza another way. The photo shows a piece of bacon I pulled off to demonstrate size.

The cheese was a little disappointing. It was pretty much flavorless, with no gooey goodness and no cheese pull. Chip and I disagreed on the sauce; he thought it was too saucy. I didn't find that to be the case at all, but the sauce did have a few larger pieces of tomato in it (I hesitate to call them chunks, because it wasn't a chunky sauce). I think the texture may have been partially what he was reacting to.

My overall assessment of Ginny's pizza is positive. I would definitely try it again, although I don't think Chip would partake with me. 

It would be worth it just for the bacon.