Jolly's Pizza — Restaurant in North Royalton

While it's only opening night at Jolly's Pizza & Scholarly Brewing, there's a lot of things that they're already doing right which should keep them around the North Royalton community for some time to come. The pizza is delicious and the beer has great variety, and the atmosphere is lively and kid friendly. The owner said he wanted a family friendly place in North Royalton, and I think he nailed it.

Before we get to into details, lets start with something important keep in mind, this is a shallow pan style pizza. This means that there isn't big puffy crusts, and that the edges are going to have that characteristic caramelized - charred cheese crust. This edge is crunchy and salty, and has a very distinct crispy cheese skirt flavor that some might say tastes a little burnt. But that nuttiness is part of the allure, and stylistically what makes this crust unique to this style of pizza. If you're expecting Papa John's softy doughy crust, 'you're gonna have a bad time'.

So now let's dig into the most important part, the pizza. Despite the appearance of the edges, the underside of the pizza shows that it isn't overcooked (again, this is an intentional decision, like a detroit style pan pizza) and is actually lovely golden brown color. It has slight touch of crispiness (it's not hard) has a wonderfully toasted dough flavor. There's a moderate rise to the dough showing some volume between it and the toppings, but it isn't a New York Style nor a focaccia bread pizza. The results is a great vessel for allowing the wonderful cheese blend and toppings to show through.

Both the toppings and cheese feel like they're well thought out and quality. The cheese has that amazing stretch you want to see, while delivering a creamy, salty, nuttiness. The pepperoni on our Peppy Pig is just what you'd expect, while the basil and hot honey helps it reach the next level. The overall flavor is an amazingly constructed pan pizza that should make pizza hut go cry in the corner (over what they could achieve if they weren't pinching pennies together hard enough to make copper wire).

While we took it to go, we had a similar experience with their Almost Paradise (which I couldn't help popping a slice of when I got home). The flavors are all on point, with the barbeque sauce having a unique little kick. In the cases of both pizzas, the sauces do not appear to be under the cheese, but rather on the pizza top. Which is important as you're going to see the sauce, and it's not going to be a perfect sauce underside in every bite. This is ok, there's enough flavor from the cheese and toppings that each bit is unique, without becoming monotonous.

We also had the Cheese E. Bread, which was fine, but not nearly as special as the pizza. The Jolly Sized pizzas have a large crust to interior ratio, and the Cheese E. Bread shows that more center to break up those bites of rich crust is a good thing. It's not bad, but more center would make it better. In terms of beer, it's good, cold, and priced well at $5 each. There are a lot of IPAs, and the Primo Creamo I had was a solid cream offering. The Elf'd Up was a nice Christmas beer, but they're overshadowed by the pizza. They do however go with it quite well.

The vibe is fun, retro, and simultaneously modern. There are retro arcade style games and the TVs play an interesting mixture of retro Price Is Right, Scooby Doo, and seemingly whatever else someone felt like they were going to be entertained by. There are two things to know about service though. First, they take your card when you arrive. This allows you to pick up the phone at your table (you have a red phone at your table) and order your food and drinks at will. Second, you can then walk out whenever you're done, and they'll charge your card, plus an automatic 20%. You can settle up by calling them to come over or use the app.

Overall they have really good pizza, great staff, and a reasonable price. The fun theme is great for families, and I certainly hope they're around North Royalton for some...

I will start off by saying that I loved the food and it was their opening weekend, so for that reason I will be giving them another chance for dine-in. That being said, their service concept really has me on the fence after our experience. Prior to being seated you’ll be asked to provide a credit card for your tab and informed that 20% gratuity will automatically be added to your final bill (which is fine since we always tip at least 20% or more when dining out). You are not greeted by a server, but informed to use a phone at your table to place your order and to reach for any other needs. We placed an order for two waters, two beers, antipasto salad, wings, and a Blue Steel pizza with pepperoni added. After about 15 minutes I used the phone to inform them that we hadn’t received our drinks, and the gal on the other end apologized and said they’d be right out, however, 5 minutes later I had to flag down the manager to tell him we still didn’t have drinks and he was on it immediately. Then about 30 minutes into the dinner I noticed that other tables which were sat after us had started receiving salads, but ours never arrived, so I placed a call and the salad was out within minutes. We got caught up in conversation and without noticing how much time had passed, saw a pizza being delivered to a nearby table which had only been there maybe 20 minutes (we were there almost a hour at this point). I flagged down the manager, told him what we ordered and he brought a pizza and wings out within minutes.The pizza we ordered was supposed to have fresh mozzarella and torn basil, but what we received was clearly a pepperoni pizza since neither of those items were on our pizza. I told the manager it was the wrong pizza and he brought it right back to us with torn basil sprinkled on top. He was very nice and clearly working hard, so I let it go. Thankfully the pizza and the wings were REALLY good, so I could see past everything else that transpired at that point. I then picked up the phone to ask for a to-go container, but no one answered, once again the manager provided. Like I stated earlier, it was opening weekend so hopefully just glitches in the process that’ll work themselves out in the near future, but I missed having a server who would have been focused to some extent on our table and dining experience. Hopefully we will feel differently about the concept on our next visit.

Update; We’ve been back several times and have always been very happy with the food and service. They are a great addition...

Updated review: went back and tried Jolly’s again during the Super Bowl and it was great!!! None of the pizza tasted burnt. The pizzas were cooked to perfection and the timing was spot on for pickup. Definitely a unique style of pizza (think a flattened Detroit style) but I was so stoked it tasted right this time around. Their specialty pies are awesome and unique. The Do-Gooder is amazing. Heck and Peck and Peppy Pig were also great!!!

Original review: Was really hoping this new shop would hit it out of the park as it’s within 1 mile of my house, and while you can see the potential, there’s room for improvement. I read about how busy they were online, so I placed an online order for pickup at 5:00pm. Never received an update via text/email that the pizza was done. I went in around 4:50pm and the food was already done and sitting on the rack. It was already cool when I got home so who knows how long it was done for, but no notification ever came (checked my spam/junk as well).

Got home and the pizza was overpowered by the taste of burnt. The only spots on the pizza actually burnt were some very slight portions of the edges, but it overpowered the taste of the pizza. No other taste really came through. I’m not sure what caused this, but the pizza itself was not burnt, it was just the overpowering taste of the Kia itself. Very odd.

The pizza dough itself was very dense. I’m not sure if the dough wasn’t proofed or if it was just soaked with oil, but it was very stodgy, two pieces of the medium and I was full. The cheese bread on the other hand was much lighter and crispier (although it still had that overpowering burnt taste).

I’m really hoping it’s just opening weekend jitters that can be addressed. I’d happily adjust my score upwards, and I’ll definitely give it another go, but I’m writing this primarily so ownership can get some constructive criticism and fix some glaring issues before they...