Calabria Brickoven Pizzeria - Mt. Juliet — Restaurant in Mount Juliet

Really short version: great food, fantastic service, great ambiance. Just go!

3/15/2023 update - still love it, still maintain below review. They've added some great bourbons and local beers which is nice to see.

Details: I generally frequent a restaurant based on the taste of the food, the service and the ambiance. Without going all mathematical on everyone, let's just say that I want you to consider these things as subjective. Like music, beer, wine, and art, we all have our own tastes.

Food: pizza comes in many flavors. I LOVE coal-fired pizza. To me, the flavors of the sauce, cheese, and toppings come through better when "flash cooked" at 800 or 1200 degrees for 3 or 6 minutes than cooked more slowly at 450ish. So, keeping that in mind, you'll get tons of tomato flavor from the tomato-based sauce, the veggies are crisp and still full of flavor, and the spices of the meats can be identified easily. If you want a deep dish cheese filled Chicago style pizza, this probably isn't your place. Rumor has it that the chicken wings are great, but I can't confirm as I've never had them. Salads are huge and I've had and loved all of them. Garlic knots, bruschetta, and capresse are all so good that we're frequently flummoxed when trying to choose. From a dessert perspective, I would choose the Lemoncello cake, but the tierra missou is great too.

Service: we've been coming here for two years and service has been great EVERY time. What prompted me to write this review was tonight's service. For whatever reason, my shirt was driving me bat-$#!+ crazy tonight. I mean I nearly Hulked out and tore off my shirt. I begged Valon (the owner) for a shirt, after Dollar General was closed, and he came through with a shirt. There's no better service that I can think of than that. Don, behind the bar is always awesome, kitchen and wait staff are always prompt and courteous.

Ambiance: It's a pizza joint. I don't know what to say beyond that. It's your corner place where you're going to run into people that you know and love.

Overall: we're here every seven to twelve days. Often times we wish it were more, but our figures couldn't withstand more frequent visits. I truly hope you visit this place and enjoy it half as much as we do.

Below written a year ago.... Great food, great service, great ambiance. Their garlic knots, bruschetta and caprese are all awesome. Salads are huge; Caesar and house are great - haven't tried the Mediterranean. Italian meat pizza and Supreme are both awesome as is the calzone. Tiramisu is super yummy. All in all, we...

Nashville easily has some of the choicest food in the state. However, outside the city limits, at the Mount of Juliet, there is a holy site that exceeds the quality of any pizza west of Percy Priest. A place where just the aroma confuses the reality and senses those beholding it. Their eyes will tell them they are in Tennessee somewhere in North America, but their nose will betray the eyes and heckle them with shouts of rustic stone villas seasoned in olive oil and adorned in San Marzano tomato sauce. One has only to close their eyes to be sure that they are not in America, but in fact at the home of Francis Coppola himself.

The authentic wood-fired oven is the crucible by which only the sublime exits. The dross of garden variety mediocre pizza is consumed by flame, leaving just pure sacrament behind, holy and intact.

Should you enter this establishment, you will walk in an innocent American, and leave a convicted mafia don with sworn family you never knew. If upon arrival your occupation is a physician,engineer,attorney,physicist, or accountant, you will leave a hardened smuggler of fine Italian ingredients with a resolution double that of any previously held ambition.

By the time you finish your second slice, you will notice a slight burning sensation just below your clavicles. Concerned, you will make haste to the Corinto almond tiled bathrooms where upon inspection, you will see scripture spontaneously tattooed upon once ink-less skin. The scripture will read;

"Thou shalt not taint thine holy pizza with thine unholy anchovies." - (Pepperonians 13:4)

There is only one name for such a...

Bursting with flavor, clean and inviting dining room, and fantastic service!

We chose Calabria because they had a gluten free pizza. Plus, we love brick oven grilled pizza! The server was attentive, hospitable, and knowledgeable about what they could do to accommodate our family’s gluten allergy.

The caprese salad was wonderfully fresh and flavorful.

The winner of the night was the incomparable Garlic Parmigiana wings! That dish was absolutely delightful! The wings are not fried or greasy! They are cooked in the brick oven grill! The chicken was tender and juicy. The sauce they were tossed in was phenomenal!

The gluten free pizza options are either a cauliflower crust or a rice flour crust. We chose the rice flour, because w e aren’t fans of that weird twang that cauliflower pizzas can have. The Margherita rice flour pizza had their San Marzano sauce, fresh mozzarella, and basil. The presentation was wonderful. The crust was a bit well done. Next time we will ask for them to cook it a bit less. The flavor was amazing!

We also got a regular dough pizza for those of us without an allergy. We chose the PIZZA BIANCA (Ricotta cheese + Asiago Cheese + Fresh Mozzarella + Pecorino Romano + Extra Virgin Olive Oil). Ok, this was scrumdillyumptious! The ricotta cheese made it divine! We will definitely get this one again!

We ordered a gluten free rice flour crust Nutella pizza to take home. Muhahahahaha! This will be a fun treat for the kids later tonight.

Well done, Calabria! We...