However, US Pizza in Newport closed their doors in either early 2019 or late 2018, and their thin pizza was amazing, but with the closing of their business good (really good) thin crust pizza was no longer a reality, for me at least.
Alas…A new pizza place moved into the old US Pizza building in Newport and opened in July 2019. Today was my first chance to get up there to try out some FatHead Pizza. I heard that they were using a recipe similar to the one Jack and Virginia of US Pizza, the previous owners of US Pizza, but admittedly I was pretty skeptical it would be as good, I had set my expectations quite low because the US Pizza places in other places (LR and Conway) were not very good…only the Batesville US Pizza was OK, but not near as good as the Newport place. So I was off…headed to Newport to try it out.
Since November when I first visited FatHead Pizza, I have been back about a half dozen times. EACH TIME, the pizza exactly like the last one. The taste and quality were/are consistent every time.
I usually try and wait until till later to avoid the lunch crowd, or earlier to avoid the supper crowd. That’s just something I do whenever I eat anywhere…I don’t like crowds at the places I eat.
FatHead Pizza has been nicely renovated and was well staffed with friendly waitresses, as well as the owners. I was waited on quickly and was asked what I wanted to drink prior to ordering. I learned to ENJOY a beer with my pizza during my time in the Navy, so a Bud Light draft beer was my pleasure. When the waitress returned she asked if I was ready for to order my food. I already knew what I wanted and ordered a medium double pepperoni pizza with jalapenos.
After about 15-20 minutes (a beer), the waitress brings my piping hot double pepperoni with jalapenos pizza. Hmmmm, smelled so good and tasted even better.
You might ask why is this so much better than other thin crust pizzas? Well, I’m glad you asked. I’m speaking of only the pepperoni pizza right now, and lets start with the ingredients. The mozzarella cheese is a high quality stringy (when hot) cheese with a wonderful (slightly buttery) taste. The pepperoni is an excellent quality pepperoni with a moderate amount of grease (grease here is a GOOOOOOD THANG), and the pepperoni crisps on the edges slightly while remaining tender in middle, in other words perfect pepperoni. Now the crust…the crust is a thin crust that has crunch on both the bottom and the edges, and I think one of the best parts of this pizza because the “crunch” gives the pizza an added texture. And finally the sauce. The sauce is particularly important to me, because in my OLD AGE some sauces (in fact most tomato based sauces and Rotels) really give me a fit at night with HEARTBURN. I have come to know with the very first bite if a sauce is gonna hurt me or not. This sauce is nice and mild (and enhances the slight spiciness of the pepperoni), and IT DOES NOT EFFECT my acid reflux. You combine all these wonderful ingredients together and you get ONE FINE PIZZA!!!
NOTE: Let me explain something about a pepperoni pizza vs other ingredients. As I was waiting for my pizza to come, I was reading some of the recent reviews, and one of them “dinged” the pepperoni pizza because it had a little bit of the “orange grease” that pepperoni produces when cooked. THAT IS THE NATURE OF PEPPERONI to have this kind of grease and it’s packed with lots of flavor. Flavor I tell you…FLAVOR. It’s the way that a single ingredient pepperoni pizza is supposed to be like. If you don’t like the “orange grease”, then order veggies with it, or other kinds of meat, but don’t spoil it for those of us that love the taste, texture and grease of properly cooked pepperoni!
OK, so I’ve told you all about the Pepperoni pizza there. I would love to tell you about some of the other fine food they have there, but I CANNOT help myself…the pepperoni pizza is so good, it’s the only thing I will order. HOWEVER, I do have some anecdotal information to share about what I have heard from other people.
FatHead Pizza also serves many other kinds of pizza’s with the same fresh and quality ingredients you would expect. They even have a crustless pizza…just the toppings if you don’t like crust (although I don’t know how a person could not love their crust). I have been told I need to try their salads (but I don’t go to a pizza place to eat a salad), but my wife might enjoy the salad (when I take her the next time). And their menu contains other great items like appetizers and sandwiches. Just recently they added FRESH shrimp and FRESH crawfish.
While I was there eating my pizza, I see a gentleman come in ask for the manager and then proceeded to tell Mr. Hembrey that he had ordered some of the fresh crawfish earlier and wanted to come all the way back to the store to compliment him on the taste of the crawfish. He was very complimentary.
Great food, cold beer and friendly wait staff including the owners the Hembrey’s. You can tell they care about what their customers think of their food. Thanks for a great pizza…it definitely hit the spot!!!
FATHEAD PIZZA
1204 Hwy 367 North
Newport, Arkansas 72112
(870) 201-1313
I Gotta Tell Ya 