by erin thursby scopes1925@msn.com
For gourmet, punk-art pizza, take a trip to Moon River Pizza. If you’re lucky enough to live near the Murray Hill locale, it’s likely you know this pizza joint well. If not, you’re missing out on some of the best slices in town.
Around dinner on any given evening, the place is generally slammed with customers, and for good reason. Plenty of folks get take-out, but eating-in is an enjoyable experience as well.
Start by waiting in line to order your pizza. If you’re there with friends, get them to stake out a table while you order. Once you place your order, you’ll get a plastic display picture. This tells the servers where the specific orders will go and is a much more fun way than the traditional number system. Customers look forward to getting the Beatles, Elvis or other pop-art icons as their table markers. I know I do. Last time I went, I got a Cheech & Chong postcard-size movie poster. You can also get an old black and white picture of Godzilla (or T-Rex), an old picture of a pin-up girl or a postcard of a classic movie poster.
Hung on the walls at Moon River is a rotating gallery of artists. The works can range from funky pop art and abstracts to more traditional oils. Most of the art, though, leans towards the funky. Grant Thornton has a few pieces of colorful art, like a strange bumble bee piece and one of multiple hot-air balloons with a brick background. Other artists up on the walls include Eric Gillyard and Ryan Jon Adams. Often the art on these walls includes some of the best in the area that rarely shows anywhere else in town. Eric Gillyard’s work is a perfect example. This Douglas Anderson graduate recently returned to Jacksonville from Atlanta, so Moon River is the first place his art has been viewable in town since his return.
If you want something to nibble on while waiting for your pizza, a salad is the way to go. They come out fairly quickly. There are just three salad selections at Moon River: the house, Greek and gorgonzola salad. Many great pizza joints will skimp on their salads, offering a sub-standard iceberg lettuce salad with sad tomatoes and a solitary olive. Not so at Moon River. Each salad is made from Romaine lettuce and features fresh ingredients. My favorite happens to be the gorgonzola.
The busy workers behind the counter can be seen bustling about, preparing food, tossing dough and getting pizzas out of the oven. The crust is a delicious hand-tossed, freshly mixed bread that cooks up soft and perfectly compliments everything they put on top. These slices come out foldable and scrumptious.
Besides a lovely crust and stellar pizza sauces, Moon River gives their customers a myriad of options when it comes to building their pie. The same is true of their calzones, which can be stuffed with any of the topping items available for their pizza. Looking at the topping options, you can, as they say “enjoy the exquisite misery of choice.” Besides the usual toppings (pepperoni, mushrooms, ham, olives, etc.) you’ll also find options of breaded eggplant, broccoli, various cheeses (such as feta, gorgonzola, mozzarella, and cheddar), spinach and artichokes, as well as many other things. If you like pizza but you can’t handle tomato sauce, you can always go with their pesto sauce or their white pizza, which uses an olive oil and garlic sauce instead.
While building your own weird pie can be a fun adventure, there are about six pizza specials with pre-selected toppings that you can order. Each has their own avid fans, and for good reason. There’s “The Special,” a classic everything pie, which contains all the classic toppings: pepperoni, Italian sausage, sliced meatballs, fresh mushrooms. onions, green peppers, black olives and extra cheese. They’ve also got a vegetarian pie, which, among other things, is loaded with fresh, Roma tomatoes.
Their white pie, a favorite of mine, comes with three different cheeses (mozzarella, feta and parmesan), extra virgin olive oil, oregano, black pepper and fresh garlic. Meat lovers will want to sink those canines into a slice of their T-Rex, which is topped with all the meats and an extra helping of cheese. I’m partial to their “The Pizza” topped with spinach, delectable fresh mushrooms, white cheddar and fresh garlic. I’m also in love with their Maui Wowee pie with ham, pineapple (well-drained and firm, not soggy) and cheddar cheese. You also get your choice of sliced jalapeño peppers or banana peppers.
As you can probably tell, it’s difficult for me to decide on which pie I’m going to get, since several of their specialty pies are special to me. I’ve noticed that the more you try at Moon River, the harder it gets to decide what to order.
Moon River Pizza locales: 925 S 14th St Fernandina Beach, FL (904) 321-3400 & 1176 Edgewood Ave S, Murray Hill Area (904) 389-4442
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