Fortify Pizza & Burger Bar — Restaurant in Clayton

Have been dining at Fortify Pi since it opened on a regular basis. Dropped by for a mid afternoon light lunch. No greeting at front door. Hostess had her back to the front door rolling silverware, totally unaware of the front door. Four 4 top tables open + communal table and no one was at the bar. Decided to have lunch at the bar since Cody was the bartender today and would be waiting on me. Cody is top notch: very warm, friendly, supportive, attentive and extremely knowledgeable regarding the menu along with the beer and wine. Had the Caesar salad, todays chili special and a draft recommended by Cody. Lunch was great and well prepared, the light draft exactly what I requested. The food and service is always great, consistent and wonderful at Fortify Pi. I am at the end of my lunch and the hostess comes over and says to me "May I ask you to move over one seat as I have a party of 4 and I need another seat?" I literally had one more bite of my chili and 1 more sip of my draft and I would have been finished. The hostess had the party of 4 with her (not waiting up front until she knew she had the space she wanted for them) and the five of them were standing directly at my back. At the time the four 4 top tables were still open as was the communal table and now there were only 3 other folks at the bar. I felt I had no choice but to make a scene and say no or to move or leave. I got up, asked Cody for a check and moved out of the way so that the party of 4 could be seated immediately with my dishes and glasses in front of them and I left with no thanks from the hostess or the party of 4 being seated. First impressions and last impressions at any restaurant are very important in this business. I know as I own a restaurant in the Highlands of NC, I could tell Cody was embarrassed but I left him an excellent tip. He gets a 5 star rating! The hostess gets a 0 rating! Therefore I left a 3 star rating for my experience today at Fortify Pi. Jack please get a good person on your front door @ Pi or just don't have anyone. The customers can work it out themselves and not have to be embarrassed by staff. That has always been the only weakness @ Pi. Most times you are never acknowledged or welcomed by the host and rarely does the host ever say thank you for dining with us today as you leave. Usually you only get a warm good bye from your...

Some time back my interest was piqued when it was announced there would be a new pizza restaurant called Mother Udders ( yes horrible name ) in conjunction with a chef who was perfecting a recipe he brought from Chicago for cracker-thin tavern style pizza .

They eventually acquired an already existing restaurant called Fortify Pi and became Fortify Pizza & Burger Bar .

The location is pretty cool , with an outside area complete with cornhole games , a “lanai” area ( for lack of a better descriptive word) and an inside bar area. The burgers look great but I didn’t try one , my wife liked the wings , but the star of the show was the pizza .

I ordered the Chicago Thin Pepperoni and Sausage . The Pepperoni was cup and char and very , very flavorful and delicious . The sausage was crumbles , much like you’d see on a Totino’s Party Pizza but tastier . It was not , however , the fennel-sausage pinches that I associate with Chicago Thin Crust pizza and I don’t really think I got my three dollars worth that they charged for the sausage as a “premium topping “ .

The crust of Chicago tavern style pizza is usually cold proofed for several days and then rolled out thin and cured in refrigeration for 24 - 48 hours , reducing the hydration level which produces cracker like texture which defines the genre , or at least one sub-set of the genre . The crust here is a typical Chicago thin texture , but the taste is more fermented than the yeasty flavor I have experienced with some other Chicago thin style pizzas . The flavor is more reminiscent of New York style crust , if not the texture .

All in all I was quite impressed and really enjoyed the pizza . My only complaint is that there was almost no sauce . Next time I would order it with extra sauce , but there will be...

We had the pleasure of eating at the old location twice and were very excited about dining at the new location. We ate there a few weeks ago. We ordered pizza. The host and servers did not seem too interested in being there. After a long wait, we heard the waitress tell the neighboring table that the pizza ovens were shut down and there was no pizza available and they could have anything else that would be comped. Our waitress (or the one that had been burdened with us...they kept changing) informed us of the lack of pizza at the pizza restaurant. Naturally, we were disappointed but we ordered alternatives which we waited for quite awhile to get. Our drinks were long gone and we had no refills. The food was decent and we were not looking for anything free (although we did wonder why it was offered to others) so we paid and left with intent to try again. This past Sunday, we had a guest visiting us and we decided to try to get pizza again. We were told it would be 30-40 minutes wait which we were happy to agree to. After looking around town, our 45 minute wait was up. We returned to the host and were informed there was no pizza. Something again about the ovens needing to be shut down. Seriously? A pizza place where you can't get pizza. The host apologized and said that hopefully it will be better next time. There won't be a next time. It is a good place to go if you want someone to waste your time so you have to find another restaurant and wait. Maybe invest in pizza ovens that works. Maybe read the reviews about the attitude of the staff and figure out what you're doing wrong. Maybe change the restaurant to not include pizza as it doesn't seem like that is a thing that is...