Spinelli's Pizza — Restaurant in Tullahoma

Me and my mom decided to stop here after some antique shopping, due to a suggestion from a friend at work who said that they have the best pizza around this area.

Well, I'm sorry to say that I would much rather eat pizza from Little Ceasars.

Let's start off with the ordering process. There was a sign saying to order at the counter, so we held back a bit to look at the menu and figure out what they had and what we wanted. The menu was high up on the wall, boasting quite a large selection of foods that weren't pizza; stromboli, sandwiches of all kinds, appetizers fit for children, and some salads. Of course, there was pizza on the menu, but it was just a list of ingredients, so we figured we just order pizza by telling them what we wanted on it, which seems we were correct.

We asked what size of pizzas they had, to which they said they had one size... And it's VERY LARGE. They also said we could order by the slice, but we opted not to do that because that sounded like a great way to get served "leftover" pizza. There is only one style of crust: thin crust.

We ended up ordering a pizza with half pepperoni and half with sausage, onions, green peppers, and mushrooms, two house salads, and drinks. They gave us a table marker, and we sat down.

We started looking around at the atmosphere, and it had lots of "graffiti" style artwork on the walls that said lots of teenage-like remarks. The best piece of artwork by far was the large TULLAHOMA mural on the wall which showcased popular Tennessee culture. The music seemed like classic rock and 80s pop rock, which I personally liked.

It seemed like it took a bit too long just to get our salads, but it wasn't excessive or anything. However, our hoyse salads were not all that great, and served in a strange way: on plastic serving plates with a paper wrapper keeping the salad from leaking through the small holes in the bottom of the tray. The salads were quite large, but quite lacking in house salad basics. No croutons, no cucumbers, no carrot shavings, no bacon bits. It did have a few slices of tomato, and oddly, lots of mushroom slices. The salads were okay, but overall really just subpar. At least they were fresh and the ranch dressing was decent. Also, they only had "plastic baggy silverware".

Then came the pizza. They served it on, presumably, the pan it was cooked on, with a stand to hold the pizza up because it was too large to fit on the table and still give us room to eat our salads. We were told there were paper plates at the counter we could get to eat our pizza on... And that was really just disappointing to me. They didn't give us plates at a dine-in pizzeria, we had to get paper plates from the drink counter. Just sad.. I just finished my salad so I put my paper plate in my "salad tray".

Ok, now... The PIZZA!

...... Was Not Good.

The crust was flavorless, slightly soggy, and limp. The pizza is just too big for such a thin crust. The toppings were sparse, especially the pepperoni. And the sauce tasted incredibly basic. Overall, I got the impression that the pepperoni side tasted like one of those Lunchable pizza kits that you microwave. The "supreme" side was better, because the toppings were better, especially the sausage, but the crust and sauce were still piss poor.

It was way too expensive for the quality, the service people were friendly but didn't seem to offer basic items, and it really seemed like a place run by young adults who don't know how to cook and stay up all night playing video games and doing drugs, FOR people who do the same.

Overall rating: I'll give it 2.5/5 because it was edible and basic, but it was not...

2nd EDIT (2-2-25): It's getting hard to tell whether these guys are ever open or not. If you call, they won't answer the phone. If you drive over to place a wait-in to-go order and tell them they couldn't be reached, it's usually a commerlnt about being short-staffed;/ and they're not taking calls; conversely, you may also drive over to place an in&person order and find the place shut down during business hours with a sign up (or not - we have also just seen lights off with no note). Most recently was a closure at 4PM on Saturday evening.. It's sad to say, but the last few times we called when they actually were taking phone calls, we called simply to make sure they were going to be open normal hours... on a weekend... a lot of small businesses struggle with retaining help, but none others in recent memory let it show as wholly affecting the ability to maintain day-to-day operations like Spinelli's does.

EDIT: Since this location has moved to ordering at the counter, service for appetizers and entrees seems to be much quicker. They've been more consistent than ever before. Adding an additional star to previous rating.

Original Post: Food is usually good here. HUGE pizza slices. Service has been hit or miss. Have waited over 10 minutes before for slices of cheese pizza that were at the counter "ready to go" on a weeknight. Seems maybe staffing is the issue, because same staff on a different day of the week with two fewer tables to serve, service was stellar. It sounds funky, but try the Chicken & Waffle Pizza for desert, if not for...

I guess Spinelli's is well known up north... but I have to wonder if they keep tabs on their more distant locations like Tullahoma, Tennessee.

My Darling Bride is a connoisseur of sorts when it comes to Philly Cheesesteak sandwiches - so she was thrilled with her sandwich at Spinelli's. My meal, however, was a different story.

I asked the server (who never introduced herself, I have no idea who she is) what the difference was between a stromboli and a calzone. She explained that a stromboli is like a pizza that's rolled up in layers and cooked. A calzone, on the other hand, is like a pizza that's folded over and cooked... kind of like a pizza turnover. Fair enough: I love calzones, so I decided to try a stromboli since I'd never had one.

To my amazement, she brought me what appeared to be a calzone! I looked at Google images of a stromboli. This wasn't rolled up - it was folded over. I asked our server to explain how this wasn't a calzone... she just shrugged. I'm not suggesting that it was bad: it was delicious and generous. But that wasn't a stromboli.

Anyway, I got the check and was shocked by the amount. A 16 ounce styrofoam cup of soda costs $2.25 at at Spinelli's. In contrast, I can fill my 100 ounce monster mug with the same soda at Circle K for 69 cents.

It was good but definitely not cheap, and certainly not as advertised. If you're going to serve calzones, just call them that! Kudos on the Philly Cheesesteak... but points off for the "stromboli" and...