Sticks & Stones — Restaurant in Greensboro

The two liner: Sticks & Stones does a respectable job at producing quality wood fired pizzas (with room for improvement) in a chill atmosphere with good peripheral dishes and a solid beer selection. Our particular visit had a "lost" pizza in the kitchen and a waiter that was only marginally attentive; however, these points vary visit to visit, so I rarely criticize items like this unless its a repeat issue for the restaurant.

Why my opinion may be insightful - I have personally made hundreds of wood fired pizzas at home in a quasi-Neopolitan style, using long fermented & high hydration dough, San Marzano tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and high quality toppings. When we have guests for pizza night, they frequently remark that it's among the best pizza they've ever had. I also seek out wood fired restaurants to experience their rendition of the craft.

My thoughts: Making precise, high quality wood fired pizza at scale is a difficult task. With 750-950*F temps, pizzas should cook in apprx 90 seconds, which means many variables must be in harmony - the oven air temp, the oven floor temp, type of flour, dough hydration, amount of sauce, type of toppings and how they're prepared (wet vs. dry, thickness of cut, etc), and more. I can count on one hand the number of USA wood fired restaurants I've been to that can pump out hundreds of "excellent" pizzas a day.

S&S does a respectable job for the challenge. It's not perfect, but it's far from bad. My main criticism of their pizza is dough preparation and oven floor temps. My applause goes to their abundance of high quality toppings (including their above average sauce) and interesting combinations.

The dough: They seem to use lower hydration dough that isn't fermented and prepared in a precise fashion (at least, to my subjective preferences). The pizzas come out more like a round flat bread than a pizza. The rim crust is flat and dry, which leads to subdued taste. I (like many) prefer a wood fired crust that has a delicate, crisp, egg-shell-thin exterior with a moist, aromatic, airy interior that's 1.5 to 2 inches in total height. Look up a "neopolitan pizza crust" image and you'll see what I mean. A pizza crust has no toppings, so a high quality crust should stand on its own and be enjoyed like a wonderful artisan baguette. You get a bit of smoky flavor on the S&S crust, but that's where the enjoyment ends (at least for me). On the flip side, I can wholeheartedly acknowledge that working with high hydration, airy dough is significantly harder than dryer, stiffer dough in a commercial kitchen...

The oven floor temps: For all 3 pizzas that were prepared for our group, the pizza bottoms were noticeably under cooked. With a pizza that's stretched thin, it's difficult to make a slice support its own weight entirely, but the S&S slice drooped about 1 inch from the rim. Aka, it hadn't hardened but the slightest bit. Some people may enjoy this type of slice, but many do not. A properly cooked bottom provides additional flavor as the dough is seared, and it yields a contrast to the softer/mushy toppings for each bite. To achieve this in a wood fired oven, you need brick temps that are of ideal temperature to match the convective air flowing above the pizza. At home, a difference of 60F in floor temps makes the difference between an uncooked and burnt pizza bottom (for my oven, an ideal floor temp is roughly 775F, so you're talking a

Visiting Greensboro, North Carolina for some consulting work. Was craving pizza and looking for a ma & pa pizza establishment. Started off with the “Heartbreaker” salad, which is their version of a Caesar salad. The dressing was pretty decent, but the Romain lettuce was soft and a little soggy for my taste. Not overly impressed with it, but it definitely wasn’t the worst I’ve ever had. I ordered a small “tell me how you like it” pizza with Giacomo’s pepperoni, hickory smoked bacon and red onion. I asked for the sauce to be a little heavier than normal. The Pizza arrived about 10 or so minutes later, which was pretty quick in my opinion using a clay fired oven. At first look, it was pleasing to the eye, but that’s pretty much where it stopped. When I pulled the first piece of pizza out, I noticed right away that the crust was soggy about 75% through it from the middle to the outside edge. I think it needed to sit in the oven a few minutes longer. That pretty much killed the pizza for me as I like my crust to be a little stiffer all the way through. The pepperoni was one large piece on each slice of pizza and also 1/2 slice of bacon across each piece. The two meat toppings weren’t half bad and that was the saving grace of the Pizza. The sauce reminded me more of spaghetti sauce due to the moisture of it. It really thinned it out, and wasn’t as flavorful as I was expecting. Overall, the pizza was OK and I did eat all of it minus the soggy crust. It definitely filled the void in my tummy, but I will likely not be a repeat customer based upon this food experience. The service was good by Josh and the place overall seemed to be clean even though I did have a dead fly on my table that I flicked off onto the floor. Lots of potential for improvement in my opinion. I travel a lot and eat a lot of places like this so I may be...

My boyfriend and I recently visited Sticks & Stones in Greensboro for a dinner date. While the venue showcased a cool atmosphere given the pizza/bar vibe it had going for itself, our overall experience fell short of expectations.

Service could have been much more attentive. The restaurant wasn't overly busy, yet there were long stretches where our waiter was unavailable. It took a significant amount of time to obtain refills, and receiving our to-go boxes required an extremely long wait in spite of us visibly being finished with our meals.

The biggest letdown was the food. We opted for burgers instead of pizza, and unfortunately neither dish impressed. Both the vegetarian burger I ordered and the pulled pork burger my boyfriend selected lacked seasoning entirely. Mine was particularly bland, and my boyfriend's kimchi burger had very little discernible flavor of the kimchi. To be fair, the fries were well-seasoned and quite tasty, but the side should not be the highlight of the meal (in my opinion). Drinks also seemed a bit overpriced, but that's neither here nor there.

While I noticed many positive reviews mentioning the pizza, our experience with the burgers was quite disappointing. The combination of under-seasoned food and inattentive service left us feeling unsatisfied. Given this experience, we wouldn't be inclined to return to Sticks & Stones, at least not for the burgers.

Overall Sticks & Stones has potential, but our visit fell short. While the pizzas appear to be top notch (based on other reviews), I'd advise that there might be better options nearby if you're craving burgers...