Slices Pizza by Tony — Restaurant in Greensboro

Location isn’t everything in the restaurant business, but it can certainly play a big role in an establishment’s success or failure. From that standpoint, Slices debuted this past year with the deck stacked against it. It is the fourth restaurant in the past five years to try to make a go of the corner real estate on Tate and Walker. Additionally, Slices entered the scene with established competition: venerable New York Pizza sits just across the street.

Despite these unfavorable odds, early indicators are promising. Though some may dismiss the décor as too corporate, the inside of the restaurant looks the best it ever has. A pseudo-chalkboard that runs above the counter offers an informative blurb about the history of pizza while a wall houses tastefully enlarged photos of fresh ingredients. The long counter, with its parade of pies, lets patrons see before they order. If you’re having trouble making up your mind, ask one of the helpful, Italian-accented countermen. They will be glad to let you know what’s in each pie and can offer personal recommendations to suit your palate.

Slices distinguishes itself in a number of other ways, too. The “gourmet pizza” designation lends itself to topping combinations that range from Italian classics (Caprese, Calabrese, and Margherita) to standard specialties (Buffalo chicken, meat lovers, and veggie lovers) to the downright bizarre (hot dog and fries, mac n cheese). All of the specialty slices that were sampled featured quality ingredients and just the right balance of flavors. The Chicken al Pesto, for instance, was dripping with pesto sauce, but the three-cheese blend kept it from being overpowering. The Mona Lisa played creamy goat cheese and a sweet glaze against crispy zucchini and robust eggplant. The crust, while not spectacular, was even and didn’t work against the toppings.

Though the quality of ingredients suggests Sticks n Stones-level pricing, Slices is surprisingly affordable, even by College Hill standards. Specialty pies are $2.50 a slice ($15-$18 for a large pie). A recent lunch special offered two such slices and a drink for $6. Substitute one of those slices for soup or salad or make them both one-topping slices, and you’re looking at a student-friendly $5 lunch bill.

What few drawbacks there are to Slices are easy enough to overlook. The restaurant does not occupy a large space. There are fewer than a dozen tables, yet the environment, with its constant flow of music and foot traffic, couldn’t rightly be called intimate. Also, you may find pizzas on display that aren’t listed on the menu and visa versa.

All in all, Slices has a lot going for it, but whether or not it can survive among the competition remains to be seen. If you’re the least bit skeptical, come try a pie while you still...

An improvement maybe even over the record store that used to be here; all that is missing is Eugene Chadbourne but what I wished would go away would be the Greensboro Police Department who had me under surveillance across the street as they had for some time by then and to think I was the one that called them in the first place, their recommending the "neighborhood association" for legal matters something I wasn't supposed to know; short-haired employed persons are not regulars at NY Pizza, especially if they look down at the ground the minute you spot them, although the GPD are regulars with Community Watch Gail Barger who the city told me was in the Program "Because she has money and people with money have always run things, it's just always been that way" which also included handy-man Kim Maynard who repeatedly came to the property like Barger did, both hammered by County (Barnes era) after trying to have me charged with whatever they both might stir-up or fabricate altogether both bailed-out by their financial buddies in government Chief Hinson who ran from me in Center City Park, October 18th, 2014 as he told me would get Barger out of the Program which would have made a lot of people happy--"people with money" telling him how far and how fast to run, Barger would slander and defame for another several years despite her running from the law and being served by County right in front of the GPD--all of this yet again more corruption in an organization known for little else. Although it wasn't everyone in the GPD, asking me where the Coliseum was apparently got old, and for me, too, so they began switching it up to "You know where Rice Toyota is at..?" (see Edward McKay's and Victoria's Secret, Valley Hills Mall). What the Department did in Westerwood for a good, long time was allow people to come to "people without money" endlessly and repeatedly encouraging, supporting and furthering Barger's slander campaign is what the GPD did for a good, long time--it is and remains directly involved in people who continued to come to me until I went after one of them: even Andrew "Closet Boy" Swofford contacted me and got away with it, he was apparently taking a break from picking-up dope in Lake Daniel Park of that he was famous for prior to his B&E phase--just ask his mom, the Treasurer. Taking all of these issues straight to GPDHQ didn't help, either: I was puffed-up on by Sgt. Patterson who got promoted to lieutenant by Marty Kotis for keeping the upper crust...

Don't know if there is really a "pizza war" on Tate Street but if there is I think we have a winner, at least to our satisfaction. This tiny little spot opened in the spring of 2013 at the spot at the corner of Walker & Tate which has been a restaurant kill zone for years now. These folks seem to have overcome the location's problem.

The shape is a narrow rectangle, with 8 or 10 small table on the left hand side, with the pizza display area & the counter on the right wall, and there are a couple of small tables at the outside front. There is not a lot of ambiance here, but there is definitely some warmth & character.

They have 8 to 10 pizzas prepared and on display for you to choose from - like a cafeteria for pizzas. Some are the usual suspects (Cheese, Pepperoni, Veggie), others are more in the gourmet area, including a Mac & Cheese pie, and of course, you can forego that and order whole pies, pasta dishes, salads, and great sandwiches.

Daily lunch specials include 2 large slices and a drink for either $4.99 or $5.99 depending on your choice of pie - and these are very well sized slices of pizza. We chose 2 couple of slices of Pepperoni, a Cheese slice, and a thick crust Veggie of sorts - cost of $11. As you would expect in an area teeming with students, the pricing is very reasonable.

The Pepperoni and the Cheese were excellent, great sauce, nice crust, but a little soft. Next time, we'll definitely have them heated up (a choice) rather than simply taken from the display area, and would request extra cheese, which is our normal order. The crust on the Veggie was thick, and absolutely delicious, the toppings were not as good - just too much garlic, smothered the taste of the veggies & the sauce.

We also tried the Italiano Sub on their homemade Italian bread ($7.99) and a small Original Stromboli ($6.99), most of which we brought home with us for later consumption. The Italian Sub is awesome in the homemade bread. It is actually more of a wrap than a sub this way, but the ingredients are fresh tasting, plentiful, and the bread takes this sandwich to another level.

The Stromboli was also very, very good, though a tad light on the meats, but the flavor is there, and the crust was perfectly cooked. The service here is efficient, friendly, and engaging - much improved over our experience down the street. We'll be back for sure - want to pickup a whole pie, fixed to our specs, and probably another sandwich in that great...