Penn Murry Bar & Kitchen - April 27, 2023

The Penn Murry is a bar and restaurant with a well-known predecessor, the Penn Monroe, in Monroeville which is just west of us on Route 22. Seven or eight years ago the Penn Monroe closed after 60+ years in business, and the long-time managers bought an existing restaurant building in Murrysville and opened the Penn Murry. The food is spectacular, and Chip and I love their fried clams (they're just as good as any I've ever had at the shore), their jumbo wings, and I'm a fan of the to-die-for Reuben.

But somehow, we'd never had their pizza. So with a four-day weekend ahead of me and a hankering to try a new pie, we headed to the Penn Murry.

The building has a small bar and kitchen on one side of the building, and a larger dining room on the other. Outside the dining room is a patio with outdoor seating, but it was a bit chilly so we opted to eat in the bar.  

We decided to go all out and try three different kinds of pizza. To be honest, I wasn't expecting much. I'm not sure why, since everything else we've eaten there has been great, but I guess I had the mindset that if you don't specialize in pizza, your pizza might not be great.

We ordered our traditional sausage and shroom, a 4-meat pizza, and a white pizza with tomato and mushrooms. Then we sat back and waited. Nothing is ever really fast at the Penn Murry, and that's even more true post-pandemic. Since we didn't know how many pizzas they're able to cook at one time, we settled in. 

Forty or so minutes later, the pizzas arrived at the table. They. Looked. Amazing. The white pizza had really thin tomato slices and mushrooms that looked as if they'd first been browned. 

The sausage and mushroom pizza had the same browned mushrooms, and big chunks of sausage.

And the 4-meat pizza was just a hot mess of meat. 

The dough on the two meat pizzas looked as if it hadn't been punched down quite as well as on the white pizza; there were some air pockets on the back crust. But everything else about these pies was visually appealing. 

But how did they taste? I took a small half slice of each so that I could try them all. 

I'll just get right to it -- this pizza was DELICIOUS. Chip whole-heartedly agreed. The crust was neither thick nor thin, with the perfect amount of chewiness. The white sauce was fragrant without tasting overly garlicky. The mushrooms were yummy. I'm not certain what they cooked them in first, but they were well seasoned.

The sausage was not at all spicy, which surprised me a bit, but it certainly wasn't flavorless. The chunks were round, indicating that they'd been sliced off a link of some sort. Chip and I agreed that we'd never seen that before.

The four meats on the last pizza were ham, sausage, bacon, and pepperoni. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I don't think I've ever seen a pizza with more toppings - at least not without paying for double or extra. And yet when I took a bite, it wasn't overwhelming and the flavors complemented each other quite well.

I didn't notice much about the cheese, which is surprising since I'm usually all about the cheese. If it hadn't tasted good, or seemed skimpy, I'm pretty sure that would have jumped out at me. So I'll just say that the cheese was tasty and applied in an appropriate cheese-to-topping ratio.

Surprise, surprise: Chip and I just found a go-to pizza in Murrysville, and one that's now in my top three so far for the year. The Penn Murry also opened my eyes to the possibilities of great pizza at non-pizza joints. And another win? It was reasonable. Two smalls and a medium pie only cost $45.

Until next time, may your crust always be chewy and your cheese always be gooey!