Eta Pie — Restaurant in City of Ithaca

This is a wordy review, so for those who aren't interested this is a positive estimation of this restaurant and I recommend it to absolutely everyone who likes quality pizza and wings. Enjoy!

Now, for those of you who remain that are curious and enjoy reading reviews, worry not, it's only a few paragraphs.

When you live in a multuple college town, one built around ivy league Academia, or any community largely in place to service an institution, you tend to get fatigued by that aspect permeating almost every facet of towny life. This is a common symptom of anywhere on Earth that's mostly a utility community and it's not really a big deal, but it can make you overlook great stuff in your hometown because so much of the business, residency, economy, jobs, legislature, cost of living, and city infrastructure are built with the sole purpose of grabbing some of that institutions huge demographic, and their vast pools of moolah.

Before I veer into an aggrandasizing tangent and begin sounding like a "legend in my own lunchbox", I prompt this context to express more of a shortcoming on my own behalf.

College towns are filled with fast food of every kind. They are also saturated with restaurants, among other things, that are terrible and can only continue to exist inside that microbiome. Without the population over-doubling with students most of the year, there simply wouldn't be as many noodle shops, bubble tea stands, and pizza joints. There is so so SO much bad pizza made by people who have never in their lives understood what appealing Americana like pizza is even supposed to be, or taste like.

They just see profit margins making cheap "Mediterranean food" (which is an absolute farce, one place even had a 'pasta putanesca' that included Spanish cocktail olives, dill Pickles and feta cheese.)

Pasta and pizza are cheap and fast to make in volume and are a cash cow and you don't need to know anything about cooking food that is good, or close to Italo-Americana recipes, to be a successful restaurant that serves that kind of knock off garbage.

Because there's so much bad, I rarely ever even notice when, to me- yet another faceless forgettable pizza restaurant opens in the same spot the last one that failed just left.

'Eta Pie' opened their business in a former pizza place that was terrible, in a part of town that isn't a great location in any way, and I sincerely didn't pay it any mind. When I heard someone say the name and say they do fancy specialty pizzas and wings, I scoffed like that lunchbox legend jerk I am and paid it no mind until an occasion arose when my brother invited me to his place for dinner and had already ordered from there.

I can confidently say I was absolutely a fool to scoff or try to pigeon hole Eta Pie. These people know how to make pizza!!!

It was such a fantastic meal (my brother got a bunch of food for a large group of us, a number of different specialty pies and loads of wings), that I decided to make a personal goal to change my wicked ways. A commitment to myself to stop being so dismissive, reductive and judgemental and seeing everything through those fatigued eyes. That decision was solely based on how outstandingly delicious and blown away I was by the pizza and wings Eta Pie makes.

That was a lot of setup to deliver such a brief couple of compliments without much flowery prose, but that's just it, the flowery prose is that Eta Pie is so friggin good that it prompted me to change a cynical part of myself I didn't care much for anyway.

The food is so good it will make you a better person to yourself, and your community.

Thank you Eta Pie! Add that to your many accolades and stop being so good that I have a hard time driving past you almost every day, I will bankrupt myself if I got your takeout as much as I wanted to. It's already a shameful amount. The 1 star for "Atmosphere" is because of the area it's in sucks, which is in no way anything to do with the businesses. Also I have never dined there and have no intention of doing so so I also...

I want to start by saying that I don't post reviews for places, I just don't. However, given the recent review that was written, I felt I should. This place is amazing and the staff have been nothing but kind and friendly to me. Professional isn't a description for this place, it is their moto. I've watched them give pizzas away to customers to make up for messed up orders, offer customers complimentary cannoli pie, and feed the homeless. In fact, I was one of those customers.

I arrived to get a pizza and it had been on the oven for almost an hour because I got caught up with something and couldn't get to the place when I had planned. The owner was emphatic that I allow him to remake the order. At first, I refused because it was my fault. However, upon realizing that he had missed putting mushrooms on my pizza, the owner refused to let me leave without not only the messed up order, but a remake. They also threw in a cannoli pie.

Mistakes happen - as the business says in their about us section. However, I have never encountered a place so willing to go above and beyond. If someone is complaining about the service here, it is simply because they want to complain, and not allow the restaurant to make it right. This may offend the author of those two 1 star reviews, but I read the response from the business and it is not threatening or unprofessional. In fact, I would say it was a more-than-generous and considerate response - I wouldn't have been as cordial if someone said those things about my business.

This place is amazing. The food is amazing, and the staff are incredible. It isn't an easy industry and the owners and staff have executed it with a degree of customer-centric focus that just doesn't exist in most places today. This is why I will come out of my anti-review she'll and...

It was the Infinite Pizzabilities slogan on the sign that caught my attention. Fair warning, if it's a traditional New York style slice heated up and handed to you on a paper plate that you're after, this is not your spot. But if you're the kind of person who can't get enough of mix and match, create-your-own, build-your-own options when it comes to food, this place might be your heaven. 8 different sauces, 12 kinds of cheese, 20 different proteins including escargot!? And more than 3 dozen other veggie and dressing/drizzle options. And who says you have to get pizza?! They let you top your own salad or rice bowl, plus there's cauliflower rice and cauliflower pizza crust for all your gluten free friends. One of the Co-owners, a college student trying to put himself through law school was at the counter and the other was hard at work in the kitchen...working to keep all the topping bins full and dough ready to go in the hopes of supporting his retirement. I don't know these guys at all, I was just getting the scoop on how the place came about while I was waiting for my custom made 8" pizza. I didn't have to wait long at all, and they had a handful of stools at a window counter and an outdoor picnic table, so I could've stayed and enjoyed my pizza there, but instead I ended up taking it with me. I almost called them back to tell them how good my pizza was (Roasted Pineapple Habanero sauce, Provolone, Bacon and Juarez Style Pork Carnitas, with Maple Bourbon Pickles and fresh Jalapeños) but instead I figured I'd write this yelp review and hopefully send some new customers their way. Go here. Get creative. I know I'll be back, I have way too many combinations I...