Lucy Blue Pizzeria

Lucy Blue is probably the Cincy pizza I have eaten the most of that I have not yet reviewed on this blog. They are definitely best known as a late night option, and the dated Lucy Blue website highlights that they were voted “Best Late-Night Dining” on AOL. The original Lucy Blue opened at 12th and Walnut in OTR in 2002. Currently, Lucy Blue has four locations, all close to bar districts: Over-the-Rhine, 7th Street downtown next to the Lodge Bar, Mt. Lookout by MLTs, and Covington Mainstrasse. I’ve stopped by every location over the years, so this is a composite review from my experiences.

First, I'll say tht there is some art in late night restauranting. Late at night, you have to put up with belligerent drunks to a degree, but not let them ruin your meal. I would give Lucy Blue credit for facilitating their late night clientele much better than… say the old Balboa’s. You might be soured on late night pizza from the half-hour line and not particularly clean atmosphere at Balboa’s on Vine. Don’t be - Lucy Blue is much quicker and better looking inside. Also, they have a sort-of mass production system going and have decent pizza by the slice quickly available. Late night you can get a slice for $2.50 or a whole pepperoni pizza for $15.00.

Here's a pepperoni and sausage pizza (we took extreme advantage of the parmesan and crushed red pepper):

...and pepperoni only. Note the fold-ability:

Here’s a slightly blurry undercarriage shot:

Lucy Blue serves some good New York style pizza. The slices are big and somewhat thin. The crust is generally very crisp, but the slices are still foldable (for those inclined). The sauce is slightly spicy, and there’s not too much of it. Lucy Blue’s slices also come loaded with cheese - It’s probably some sort of processed cheese, but above-average processed cheese.

Lucy Blue also has a lunch buffet during the day at their 7th Street location for $7.50 (or just $6.50, if you’re willing to huff it up to the 12th street location). I only went once, but I wasn’t impressed by this buffet. The pizza I had there came out mouth burning hot and was quite doughy. Also, with only one or two pizzas on the counter at a time, they regularly ran out (Whereas Snappy Tomato’s downtown lunch buffet has 10 pies available at any time). Other people I’ve talked to have had a similar experience in their visits. …FYI – if you’re looking for the best lunch pizza buffet in the city, that would be at Mac’s Pizza Pub on Friday.

Anyways - My final judgment is that Lucy Blue’s is usually above average pizza. However, sometime around 2 a.m. it becomes very good pizza.