Impellizzeri's Pizza — Restaurant in Louisville

WoW! I consider myself a pizza connoisseur, and take pride in making a very good home made from scratch pizza. So when I travel I take a little time finding something local and unique. First is the story behind this Louisville landmark. What once was a butcher shop turned Pizzeria, I was super excited to see if the flavor and feel of Impellizzari's was as unique as the story behind the name. After reading a few reviews about the locations and the menu, my mind was made up that the location on Bardstown Road was the place I needed to see. It is very easy to find situated in a neighborhood full of character and charm. Some on street parking and a parking lot behind the pizzeria provided plenty of options for parking. Walking up to the building you coudl smell the amazing pizza and spice smell you would expect from home made and fresh baked pizza. A nice sidewalk patio for dining greeted us as we walked to the front of the building. When you walk in the atmosphere is fantastic. There is great pride in the local distilleries. One of the coolest bars and bourbon and whiskey barrels used as decor. Very clean and friendly staff greetings as we walked in the door. Once seated our waitress was right there to welcome us and offer us drinks and menu's. I ordered an Eagle Rare on the rocks and a soda. When She brought my drink back Was happy to see a large cube in the glass and a strong pour, well over half in the glass. I immediately asked about the double layer of toppings on their pizza's, that aI read about on the web site prior to my visit (yes, 2 heathy layers of toppings!). I also asked about their thin crust pizza, because that is they style of crust I like making from scratch. Our waitress explained that in order to get the double layer toppings you have to order the regular crust, not the thin. She explained that if I like my crust a little crisper, they have the option of getting it "well done" and that I would really enjoy it. I took her advice and went with it. We also ordered the cheese bread with sauce, as they were highly recommended on Yelp. The cheese bread was everything and more. its not often that you can truly enjoy the cheese. In this case the cheese was so fresh and thick! every bite was better and better. The other thing that was nice thet with the amount of fresh cheese, I was worried it might be oily and a little greasy. It was perfect. Not oily or greasy and the sauce was just the right amount of tomato and a little sweet. The cheese bread was a hit at my table. and would recommend it! We were also made aware when we ordered, that the pizza would take about 25 minutes to bake and she wanted to make sure we were aware of that. I appreciated the notice, but was so excited i would have waited twice as long...lol. When the pizza came, my eyes were almost as big as the pizza! Wow! It smelled amazing. The toppings were plentiful and fresh, the crust was just the right amount of crisp (remember I ordered it well done). The crust had a great flavor with a hint of sweet. They use the same secret ingredient I do in my crust i believe. Obviously we couldn't eat it all, and there were 3 of us, so they brought us 3 boxes so we could split the left overs AND... AND she offered to give us to-go cups for our soda's!! I love that nice little gesture. When the bill came I was very pleased and felt like for the amount of food and the quality of the food, atmosphere and overall experience, it was a bargain. This would be a great place to come as a family, kids included. Not super noise, a few TV's with the football games going, but quiet enough that you could have great conversation at the table. If you like to dine local, and want flavor and feel that you cant get from chain eateries, Impellizari's is the place. I would love to come back sometime and meet the owner and maybe see if they would let me make a pizza with their Chef's. I highly recommend this pizzeria for the person that enjoys a good well made pizza...

After a long drive from Toronto on Sep 2, this was one of the few places open late in downtown Louisville. When we were about 10 miles out, we called and placed an order for takeout. Anyways when we got there, we realized how tired we were and it was better to have dinner and head to the hotel. My wife went in to inform of the change while I settled on an outdoor table with our toddler. She came back quite flustered and told me what happened. She was asked to inform the bar about the change since takeouts are handled there. The bartender, Anthony, turned out to be extremely rude. He told her that this is not the way we do things here, you can't simply change your mind and we should be 'taking care' of the waitstaff appropriately since now they have to setup for dine-in and clean-up after we left. It was 8.40pm and wasn't busy. The waitress setting up our table, who was witness to the whole debacle inside, appeared embrassed and apologized for the behavior of her colleague. We asked to speak to the duty manager who also came and apologized and said he would inform the general manager the following day.

The bacon and chicken pizza was really good with lots of topping, creamy mozzarella and a thick, well-done base. The baked chicken Alfredo pasta was made well. It also came with fresh breadsticks drenched in salted olive oil. Yummy. Portions are big.

End of the day you don't treat patrons with disrespect. The only reason we can think of for being handed out this treatment by Anthony is the fact that we appear to belong to a minority (brown/Indian). I hope this was just an individual's point of view and not the mantra instilled...

Life was getting a little to busy to handle. I decided that I needed to make time for myself before I burned out. So I went to Bardstown to visit a different store but they were only providing curb side service. I meandered around and went to another store on Bardstown but the sales lady was rushing me to check out (even though they were open for another 4 hours). She even suggested to come back before close to find what I felt like I was over looking but needed. That experience had me frustrated and I didnt feel like going home to work on the projects waiting for me. So I continued walking towards down town and saw this restaurant. The thought of pizza seemed to settle my nerves alittle 🙂. When I arrived, it wasnt busy yet. I was greeted and was patiently helped with suggestion (this was my first visit here). The gentleman who waited on me, Tyler,said as I looked confused at the menu.."I dont want you to feel rushed. How about I give you a minute to look over everything?". (He was so kind and welcoming with EVERYONE!)After the frustration of being rushed less than 30 min ago, that was like music to my ears...and suddenly I wasnt feeling frustrated anymore☺. I ordered wings in old forester hickory sauce, the bakd manicoti and a pepsi. The food was AWESOME. I also ordered 2. Of their 14 in pizzas to go. I left the server a big tip for helping me feel better because his simple act of kindness calmed my nerves and will help me keep up with the hectic schedule I have to manage. #kindnesscanheal Its good to be kind to everyone, you never know what a person may be...