Tom’s Papa Dino’s Pizza

Tom's Papa Dino's Pizza was founded 50 years ago as the first pizzeria in Boone County. I admire their pioneering spirit out in the wilderness of sub-I275 pizza. During the annual pilgramage to Georgetown for Bengals camp, we usually try to pick out a different restaurant along I75 that we have never visited. This year, we settled on Tom's.

I'll first state that my expectations were not very high. My experience with Kentucky pizza beyond Florence has not been very positive. Also, Tom's Papa Dino's is the only pizzeria for a while in the Richwood/Walton area, besides a few crappy chains. As a rule, restaurants that are the single representation of a type of food often disappoint as they have no competition. When there's only one Italian restaurant in a town, they're not really competing with anyone else on quality of Italian cuisine. So, Tom's had a few known factors going against them. Nonetheless, I was willing to give them a try as they had to be better than the pizza in Georgetown, KY.

The inside of Tom's feature some Sopranos memorabilia on the walls and a Leaning Tower mural. The service was very quick and friendly. We ordered a medium specialty pizza with a bunch of crap on it (Pepperoni, jalapenos, black olives, and feta cheese - my choices, if you've yet to notice a pattern on this blog):

There was lots of sauce on the pizza. The toppings all fell off a few times, as the slices were slightly overloaded. Tom's also makes the mistake, in my mind, of using provolone cheese (like Larosa's) instead of the more typical mozzarella.
I was impressed with the amount of toppings they had on the menu. I thought those that we had on the pizza were decent. The jalapenos were really hot, the pepperoni and olives were okay but drowned out, and the feta cheese was pretty good. When everything fell off the pizza, I scooped it up and ate it separate once - This tasted quite good. However, there was a big problem with this pizza: the crust.

It looked like the crust was home made, and it actually had a decent appearance. However, the big flaw of this pizza was that the crust was very hard and didn't have much taste. In my opinion, it ruined the pizza. Here's the obligatory underbelly/upskirt/booty shot:

Looks alright, but did not taste it. Also, they say pizzas like eggs are cheaper in the country, right? Not here. A medium 12" speciality pizza is $15. I could have ordered a much better pizza for less at Via Vite (but alas, they have yet to open a second location on the Richwood 75 exit).

So, the pizza was not very good. However, one good note about the place - my associate ordered a steak hoggie and graded it a 8 our of 10:

I may be back the next time I have to make the drive down to Georgetown, Ky. However, I will be sure to order a sandwich instead of the pizza. If you are in the greater Walton area and want some pizza, I encourage you to drive up to Erlanger or Burlington for some Bourbontown. If you want a good sub though, this is a viable option.