BricknFire Pizza

It’s hard to categorize BricknFire Pizza. It’s not a restaurant. Not a food truck either. Maybe we could call it a “Pizza Gypsy.” The owners roam from their homebase at The Breadery in Catonsville to various farmers markets and functions wheeling their brick, wood-fired pizza oven along for the ride. Then they set up a tent and serve what’s fresh. We caught up with them on a Friday at Union Craft Brewery where they’ve had a weekly gig for a while. Union’s parking lot was roped off to provide people with space to spread out on picnic tables and blankets, making for a festivalish feel. The only thing missing was the music (hint, hint). They only serve by the pie, so go up and order what you want from the revolving menu and wait ’til you’re called. This week’s choices were: cheese, soppressata, and margherita—which are pretty much always options—plus a dessert pizza with berries and marscapone, and the owners’ creations, which frequently change (on this visit, Trey’s was prociutto & tomato over pesto, and Megan’s was jumbo crab, tomato, corn over white sauce with Old Bay. We ordered the margherita ($10) and strolled over to the bar inside to order a Duckpin Pale Ale ($4). This was the perfect amount of time for our pizza to be done. Delicious pizza and beer in hand, we strolled over to a stray folding chair to take in the atmosphere. The scent of fresh basil and baked pizza crust coming from our little cardboard box was intoxicating. We’ve had a lot of pizza here at Baltimore’s most pizza-loving alternative weekly, but this one was pretty perfect. The fresh mozzarella was tasty over the red sauce, which was not too aggressive, but the crust! The crust was it! It bubbled up from the bottom making crunchy little alcoves of flavor. The oven they use is fired to around 1,000° F, which we think is pretty impressive for something that gets carted around after a truck. Whatever magic they are using at BricknFire we are behind them 100 percent.

Originally Published: Jul 29, 2014 at 11:36 am