Prospector's Pizzeria & Alehouse — Restaurant in Alaska

A tale of 2 pizzas (or experiences):

The first day I went was during a relatively quiet time around lunch. I ordered the northern lights pizza but asked if I could substitute portabello mushrooms for the chicken because I'm vegetarian (and had checked to see that they had portabellos on a different pizza) . The very cheerful server said she had to ask to make sure it would be okay but she thought that it would.

After a few minutes she came back and confirmed it was ok so I placed my order and ate the more beautiful of the 2 pizzas in my pictures. The spicy aoli was especially delicious. I ate half and she packed the rest up and I joyfully ate it later at the Savage River picnic area in Denali. Nobody mentioned an upcharge for the substitution and I don't recall there being one on the bill.

The pizza was so good that 2 days later I went back for another one, this time in the evening. It was pretty busy with the only open seat being at the bar. I sat down and waited a few minutes to get a menu and a water cup then tried to order the same thing. The bartender was surprisingly harsh and told me he could do that but he'd have to charge me for the mushrooms. I was confused because this wasn't what I had experienced the previous time. He said it was very busy and that wouldn't work then he pointed to a part of the menu that says no substitutions and told me that if he tried to put my order in the chef would come out and yell at him. When I reiterated, somewhat sheepishly given the level of aggression I felt, that I was just confused because that's not what happened 2 days prior he called the general manager over. When I explained to him what happened my prior visit he got a surprised look on his face and said that wasn't how they normally did it but they would do it again since that's what I'd had before. I thanked him and the bartender asked him to go explain that to the chef.

Later my pizza came out, on a very beat up pan, with a sparse amount of generic mushrooms and without the aoli and cilantro. When I mentioned it to the bartender he apologized and got it properly dressed. I don't know if this was a test to see if I'd actually had three pizza or not but it seemed strange that this pizza the GM had talked to the chef about came out wrong. The pizza came back properly dressed (photo with weird lighting as a result of some overhead obstruction that made it hard to see where I was sitting) It was still good, but not as good as when it had the portobello mushrooms on it. I ate the whole thing this time, paid and left. After the ordering process the bartender was friendlier so I gave my customary 20%.

I've owned a restaurant so I understand that there are always reasons for things. High volume kitchens perform best when they execute a set menu without variations so preparing things becomes reflexive and having substitutions can interrupt that, slow things down, create more errors and require more training. I also know that the food cost for chicken is way higher than mushrooms (at least in my market) and that their margin on the item would probably be higher with my substitution.

I also understand that sometimes you're not having a great day or something gets you fired up so you don't treat the customers as well as you might like so I'm not too put off by the bartender's initial behavior.

I do have two suggestions for the managers (from my relatively blind customer point of view):

1. The apparent conflict between the kitchen and the servers/bartenders probably should be addressed as it seems to be spilling over to customers

2. where you have chicken as the main protein on your menu consider offering the choice of portabellos or chicken to open up more of your menu to vegetarians (potentially increasing your margins)

Also keep up the good work on these pizzas. The...

You've got two options for pizza here in Healy at the gateway to Denali. If you're staying at one of the lodges across the street, they're probably going to recommend the other place, as they own it and they're required to do so. If they do, and you have a hankering for pizza, do yourself a favor, ignore that recommendation, and walk across the street to Prospector's.

They're owned by the 49th State Brewing Company which has 2 other restaurants in the state and who produce tons of interesting beers, including the Smōk peated one I tried...and liked! I often gravitate to a smoked whisky or mezcal, but had never tried (or heard of) a peated beer before. It was a nice diversion from standard beer fare, and there are so many other house-brewed beers on top, you're sure to find something you like if you're a beer person.

The pizza was GREAT. I don't say that lightly...I've written dozens of detailed reviews of pizza places and have cataloged the differences between basic restaurant pizza to try NYC slices, Detroit Style, Chicago style, etc. When I say the pizza was great, it comes on the back of an ongoing lifelong deep-dive into pizza.

The dough may have been the store...perfectly proofed, and crispy, and the bottom with a nice chewiness and flavor to the crust on the rim. I liked it a lot. There are also tons of vegetarian (and even vegan options.) We got a half cheese and half vegan pepperoni...the larger grizzly size which, was generally a mistake...we would have been fine with the smaller size, but somehow we managed to finish almost all of it and my wife had a spare piece of pizza for a snack the next day.

The atmosphere was great too...we were seated at a hightop at the bar...and actually, we got seated right away which felt like a miracle as when we arrived there were tons of people waiting for tables. The place was perfectly Alaska decorated...so we knew exactly where we were and we loved that on the large TVs they were showing videos of local wildlife and the aurora borealis which nicely accented where we were and was much preferred over any sporting event.

The garden salad we got was also really fresh and well done.

We really liked it here. It was one of the nicest places in town to eat...well worth the easy walk across the street from the resort we were staying at, and if we had one in our town, it would be a frequently...

My family and I came here while staying in Denali for dinner after completing the triple lakes trail. We arrived at around 6:40 when there was a 45 min wait for a table. There was nothing else available in the area at that time so we decided to wait for a table. The poor hosts were struggling with the volume of people and lack of system at the door. The attitude with people at the door was, understandably, frustrated and a little rude but honestly I think I would be the same.

When we sat our server came by relatively quickly which was nice. It was super busy and it was nice to be greeted quickly. We ordered the spinach dip to start, a side salad, and two pizzas to share, along with some drinks.

The appetiser and salad came really quickly, and our drinks came shortly after. Everything was good so far, but took a turn for the worse.

There was no pizza coming out of the kitchen and our server let us know the oven wasn’t getting up to temperature. It was broken and they were not taking new pizza orders. I asked her if our food would still come and she said that it would. We waited for a further HOUR before she came and told us that they wouldn’t be able to make our pizzas because the oven was broken.

When the manager came to speak to us, he was obviously shaken from the night he was having, but tried to excuse their inability to make the food on an accident.

It wasn’t the inability to have pizza that was the issue, it was the combination of waiting 45 mins for a table and then over an hour to be told we wouldn’t get our food. After hiking nearly 15 miles that day we were ravenous and would have chosen to order something else. Communication and leadership from the store management seems to be the issue here - as someone who has worked in hospitality for many years.

They did comp our entire bill which was very much appreciated. Our server was also lovely, but perhaps overworked with too...