Locally Owned Restaurants Part 1: Pizza
I’m a Gainesville local, and over the years I’ve seen people come and go. New friends freshly moved into Gainesville come with a challenge, lacking knowledge about what there is to do in this town. Very often students come to the University of Florida and rarely leave campus and when they do they don’t venture far. This is tragic, as Gainesville is a great town with many unique features just waiting to be discovered.
So I’m putting on my tour guide hat and taking you, the reader, out on the town to see what it has to offer. Let’s start with what Gainesville does best: the unique food.
We’ll begin with the basics: pizza restaurants.
1. Big Lou's
Big Lou’s is located at 5 SE 2nd Ave. (at the corner of 2nd Avenue and Main Street). While there are many New York-style pizza restaurants in town, Big Lou’s is often credited with doing it best. They sell by the whole pizza (sizes 10, 14 and 16 inch), as well as by the slice. Your first time in it’s a safe bet to go with either a specialty pizza or one of their non-pizza items.
What’s the best specialty pizza to get? Well I’d suggest the Mediterranean pizza (add artichoke hearts). However, the night I dined in this week, my server, Monique, suggested her favorite pizza: the Big Lou’s House Special. The House Special has tomato, prosciuto, ricotta cheese, garlic and oregano, all on an olive oil base which makes it more like a flatbread than a pizza. Monique’s other favorites included the mozzarella sticks as well as the chicken parmesan sub.
My favorite feature about Big Lou’s is its large patio. It’s a great place to chill out with friends and bring your dog. The service is just as attentive as sitting inside the building, and you have a prime downtown people watching location. There’s live music on the patio often on Thursday through Saturday nights.
2. Satchel's Pizza
If you head across town at 1800 NE 23rd Ave., you’ll find Satchel’s Pizza. Satchel’s is a Gainesville cultural staple that opened in 2003. While it closed briefly in 2012 after an unfortunate kitchen fire, they reopened as the Satchel’s we know and love (with some slight remodeling).
The best way to go when ordering at Satchel’s for the first time is to start off with a Satch Salad (warning, the salad pictured below is a SMALL), and then build your own pizza (their pizzas can be gluten-free and vegan friendly). I would advise asking an employee to suggest a pizza for you to get an original and delicious pie. I recently requested my server to surprise me with my toppings, and I received a zucchini, pesto and sausage pizza. It was one of the best pizzas I have ever had at Satchel’s. Jim McRae, manager, said his favorite pizza is “jalapenos, maybe spinach and green olives on a deep dish pizza."
Outside of the pizza Satchel’s makes its own desserts and they have apple pie and cheesecake. The sodas are made in house as well. McRae suggested the Ruby Root Beer as the best with Ginnie Ginger Ale as a close second.
Satchel’s is unique in Gainesville as most of the employees are long term. “We’re treated really well here," McRae said.
You can sit inside, outside, in an old van converted to a table in front of the restaurant, or in the Lightnin’ Salvage shop in the back. There is live entertainment every night on the stage in Lightnin’ Salvage, varying from music to comedy to belly dancing. Lightnin’ Salvage also serves as a wonderful location to buy unique gifts.
