It starts with an amazing oven — a 900-degree one! That’s where hot magic happens at Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza restaurant. General Manager Dustin Hammer, a top-notch chef in his own right, works with Chef Dave to make “pizza night” a truly delicious experience. “The oven is coal-fired 365 days a year,” Hammer explains. “We keep it going. It never goes out.” Laughing, he adds, “Even on Christmas we come over and keep it going.”
With good reason: There’s nothing quite like pizza and breads made in a well-tended oven of this type. That high, even heat produces a crisp, edgy crust that’s charred to perfection, lending Italian foods a just-seared, coal-fired flavor that can’t be matched by other means.
The restaurant offers a full-service bar (with beer on tap), salad, wings, meatballs and other appetizer options (often served with focaccia), numerous pizza varieties, sandwiches and cheesecake for dessert. Couples out on a date night will find the atmosphere upbeat and polished, yet casual. For a group of friends, family or business associates, there are heavenly pizza options to please every palate, from Traditional with favorite toppings, to Specialty Pizzas, including a yummy round White Pizza (ricotta, mozzarella and fresh-grated Romano cheeses), a crazily meat-loaded Carnivori — a square creation carrying the whole band: tiny meatballs, thick pepperoni rounds, Italian sausage and smoky bacon.
Start with Anthony’s Classic Italian Salad and Wings
The salad! How can a straightforward Italian-style bowl of greens and other goodies be this good? This popular course is beautifully presented with bite-sized, juicy crunches of Romaine lettuce, chickpeas, small wedges of hard-boiled egg, purple salad-onion slices, glorious olives and — if you ask for it — rich Gorgonzola cheese chunks. Positively addictive. So healthy, too.
Clearly, the dressing plays a key role in this salad’s success, as it’s not overly acidic, not overwhelmingly herby, enjoyably tasty yet precisely humble enough for diners to taste each individual salad element.
Four types of wings take the edge off while you’re awaiting the starring pizza to arrive: One features caramelized onions, in a rather unusual take on wings. Here, charred edges mingle with tender chicken and sugary roasted onions to yield a uniquely memorable taste. The Dry-Rub No. 2 wings, served with a side of focaccia, are entirely different: again, they’re charred just right on the outside, while the chicken meat is moist inside, but this time, the experience features a tantalizing myriad of Italian spices. These wings are sporting more lovely herbal notes than the tongue can dream up. First you detect thyme. Yummm. The next bite — wait — is that rosemary? Marjoram? Total taste fun.
Red Sauce Winners
Maria’s Meatballs with Ricotta is an excellent starter dish, though admittedly, some folks might find that large meatball so darned filling they may not be able to handle more than two slices of pizza! “Our meatballs are hand-rolled with care,” assures Hammer with his typical culinary confidence, and he confirms that they’re bathed well in his homemade, just marvelous, basil-tomato sauce “with simple ingredients” that’s sweet, savory and oh-so-tomato-y. A dollop of cool ricotta and large sprig of basil bolster the flavor of this tightly textured, beefy meatball.
Hammer’s newcomer to the menu is Rigatoni Pasta, made with that same, fulfilling tomato sauce. Served al dente with a side of oven-baked focaccia, these “rigs” are large pasta tubes enveloped in sauce and draped with clingy cheese, a triumph of Italian textures and tastes in every bite.
From the Specialty Pizza Coal-Lection
Each of Anthony’s pizzas possesses its own perky personality. Here are just a few of the most enticing...
The Square Margherita: focusing on fresh mozzarella and Italian plum tomato sauce, plus grated Romano, basil, spread across flavorfully baked crispy-chewy crust.
Roasted Cauliflower: a to-die-for invention, featuring oven-darkened, golden browned bits and small florets from the cauliflower plant (one of the healthiest crucifers on the planet, btw) prepared in olive oil and fresh garlic, with a cheesy finish of mozzarella and Romano and breadcrumbs. Unforgettable.
Pauli’s Pizza: Italian sausage, baby meatballs made in-house (of course), hot or sweet peppers, plus ricotta. So well-focused, so savory.
MVP in the Veggie Category: Eggplant Marino
Important to highlight for all those eggplant fans out there! There are two standouts that make it completely worthwhile to head to Wyomissing: Eggplant Marino and the Eggplant Marino Pizza (basically, a spinoff of the appetizer). Served as a starter, the eggplant itself is super-thinly sliced and very lightly breaded, so diners gain a whole new eggplant-appreciation sensation in each forkful. Do scoop up rich plum tomato sauce, then lop off a fresh basil leaf, and plop all of this into your mouth, letting flavors explode.
NFL Hall of Fame legend Dan Marino, a partner with the business, inspired the eggplant dish, and a percentage of proceeds benefit the Dan Marino Foundation, providing programs for young people with autism and developmental disabilities.
