Ah-Beetz New Haven Pizza - Marietta — Restaurant in Kennesaw

My coworker saw this new pizza place to eat at in Kennesaw Ga. I thought ok why not. I grabbed a couple of other coworkers to check them out. While greeted at the door and staff were genuine and nice. After we were promptly seated. Dining room was decent in decor. Not many people were there (Maybe 12 people eating) The 4 of us ordered after reading the menu. The order was 3 small pizzas which were a bit more pricey but I thought maybe it’s better quality I hope. The last person ordered a meatball sub. My first friend got breadsticks and a small pizza. Breadsticks were honestly the best part of the meal in which we all 4 got to share so the portion size for the cost was good. Then came the actual delivery of the food in which was disjointed at best. First friend who ordered breadstick and a small Bbq chicken pizza got his pizza first. I get that ah Beetz pizza I supposed to have a “little” char. My friends pizza was not only charred but had massive bubbles of charred dough taking up the 1/4 circumference of the pizza. He noticed when eating the pizza the bottom was burnt black. So then we waited on the other 2 pizzas and the sub. Other 2 pizzas, margherita pizza with chicken added and a white pizza with tomato and spinach arrived 10 minutes later WAY less char and not burnt on the bottom. In the areas that there were char toppings were burnt too. Upon eating pizzas we noticed the crusts were cracker thin and lacking any major flavor. The fourth coworker who suggested to dine here for lunch in the first place waited another 15 minutes for his meat ball sub to arrive. In which he had to gobble down as we were starting to run out of time for lunch. I know all restaurants have growing pains. I will say the store owner at least greeted us and thanked us while we were waiting for the food. During the last part of our meal trying to get the check. Some corporate guy and a staff member stood in front of our table giving critique about the tables and decor. All in all this was the worst first experience to a pizza place that almost seemed as if weren’t ready to open yet. Hopefully they will get their “operation” right. But so far negative...

I was definitely excited to try this place since New Haven pizza like Sally’s, Fuoco, Zuppardi’s, Pepe’s, etc. look absolutely amazing and I don’t want to drive to Connecticut for pizza. I realize they are new, so I will try again in a few weeks, but right now it is nothing above average for food, service, or atmosphere.

I can’t see myself dining in here because the ambiance is more like a takeaway place—counter service, no beer or wine, not even a customer trash can if you need to toss your gum. It’s best served fresh, so I’m not going to order delivery.

I ordered takeaway: tomato pie (no mozz) and a cheese with pepperoni. They forgot the pepperoni, so had to remake the pizza and awkwardly called me back up to the register to pay the $3ish difference in price for the order they got wrong as I waited another 15 minutes. Not a big deal, but a clear indication that staff doesn’t have customer service experience. The owner seemed nice and enthusiastic, but there are still some kinks to work out in terms of communication with employees.

The tomato pie was quite a bit better than the pepperoni and cheese, though the crust was dry, bitter in flavor, and begging for a drizzle of olive oil. The cheese pizza had separated into a soft, bubbly top layer and crunchy bottom layer, where you could peel the top layer off completely because of the air pocket in the middle. This usually happens when the dough is under-proofed, rolled rather than stretched, or simply topped too lightly to weigh down the top layer. I think the heavy layer of tomato sauce is what prevented this with the tomato pie. While I was expecting some tasty bubbles of broiled cheese, the char was mostly on cheeseless bubbles of crust, which doesn’t have the same appeal. The sauce was far too light on the cheese pizza, which was part of the separation issue.

I will come back after giving them some time to work...

Let me set the record straight for you other good pizza seekers and onebite disciples. This pizza is very good quality and is well executed. Now, if you followed the hype about this place and New Haven lore, you were probably thinking this place was going to blow your legs clean off. It's not that kind of good... BUT I very much crave it weekly because everything is well balanced and done properly. The ingredients are high quality and the flavor profiles are well designed. If you look around this area of Marietta/Kennesaw/Cobb... we really don't have any high quality, well executed pizza except Labella's and Solar Slice. Barrett pwky certainly doesn't have anything good except Ah Beetz. Authentic NY style is obviously a different genre than New Haven, but that's ok. Sometimes I want ridiculously authentic NY style, with punchy cheese flavor, sometimes I want this particular interpretation of New Haven where it's more subtle but bright and fresh tasting. It might take you a couple times to figure out what toppings/flavors you like, but this place made our pizza rotation for sure. Our go-to now is traditional mooz, add extra mooz, add pepperoni with caesar, hot, and red sauce on the side for dipping. Look past the hype, look at the balance of the ingredients and execution and you'll see why this place deserves more business than it's...