Hillbottom Pie — Restaurant in Port Townsend

Aug 31, 2019 Today's lunch? Hillbottom Pie Pizza in Port Townsend. We decided to take a drive up to Port Townsend; it is such a beautiful ride there and back. As usual, we hit the farmers market, picked up a few veggies, and then wandered the downtown, trying to figure on a place to eat, when we came across this little pizza place located on Tyler street just off of Water Street in downtown Port Townsend. It's a cute, relaxed little pizzeria, a bit dated but part of its charm. The menu wasn't overly extensive, which is a good thing, but plenty of items to choose from. They offer Pizzas, Soups, Salads, and some Pies. We first started with a house salad. The salad offered a variety of greens, with cucumbers, kalamata olives, cherry tomatoes and sweet-hot peppers (I personally felt no heat.) The dressing was a Sherry-Dijon vinaigrette, delicious, pleasant, and light. The pizza we chose was "White Pie." Not your typical tomato sauce; instead Basil-walnut pesto, which hosted a blend of mozzarella, ricotta, and Parmesan cheese, dotted with kalamata olives on this thin crust with a significant crunchy outer edge known as the "cornicione." I liked the flavors and loved the crusty edge, although a couple of areas of the border were a little bit on the darker side, overall, I personally felt like it was a cheese overkill, still decent in flavor though; My husband, on the other hand, thought it to be an excellent pizza. It's nice trying something different none the less. The restaurant offers only one unisex bathroom, it too was a bit dated, could use a little makeover but clean none the less. Our server wasn't overly chatty but friendly enough and checked on us a couple of times while bringing more water to our table. Overall I think it was a great place to try, and the prices seemed very reasonable, six decent slices for fifteen dollars. Indoor and...

So Hillbottom Pie is an interesting place, and I really struggle with how to review it. I’ll just give the pros and cons.

Pros: Outstanding pizzas. Their Italian Sausage is excellent. They used to have a salami that was amazing but have discontinued it for some reason. Great salads and soups.

Cons: 1.) The service! Yikes. The woman who usually runs the front (I’m not sure If she’s the owner or not) can be a bit chilly. It’s as if she’s bothered that you’re taking her time. It’s definitely a business transaction instead of a pleasant meal.

2.) They don’t do half-bake pizzas to go. “Just no! We don’t do that,” after I simply asked. Ok… Yikes. I’ll just, um, shut up…

They don’t do half-and-half pizzas either.

3.) They are constantly changing their hours and no one really knows if they’re open or not until you show up. So make sure you have alternate plans. The hours posted on Google are often incorrect and the restaurant doesn’t seem interested in updating them. Even when you’re there during the times currently posted on their window, you might find a sign saying they are closed that day. It’s happened to us twice.

4.) They sell pies (dessert pies… apple, cherry,etc) only by the slice. She got stern with a guy when he wanted to buy two whole pies.

I really want to like them because their pizza really is that good. But you feel so put out when placing an order or working with her and all their odd quirks and rules. It’s...

Visited recently and will never go back. We specifically went there because we wanted pie. Even upon entering, the middle aged server seemed annoyed to help us.

We got a table and ordered soup first. Despite being early afternoon, they were out of one of their soup specials. The borderline rudeness from the server continued.

We finished our soup and wanted to order pie, but couldn't get the server's attention and she clearly didn't seem to be concerned with checking on us. Add to that, the fact that one of us had ordered a drink that was never delivered.

After 15 mins, we finally got her over to our table and decided to give up on pie so we just asked for the check. She brought the check, which included the unserved drink. We asked for the drink to be taken off since we didn't get it, to which we got an almost accusatory, "You didn't get the [drink]?!"

She was clearly beyond annoyed that she had to adjust our bill. Between the drink, pie, and tip, they easily lost out on about $25.

I will never again step foot in there after that kind...