Hearthstone Pizza

Despite a short dabble in scrap booking (yes, Viv had some influence), I've never truly enjoyed shopping at Michael's.  Sure, there are some random items that do catch my attention, but a usual visit would involve me rushing Viv to get outta the place.  On our last visit to the PoCo location, I noticed Hearthstone Pizza (as I parked right in front of it).  As much as I was curious, we left and I totally forgot about it.  It wasn't until a recent invite that brought me back out to my former stomping grounds.  Diana, Amy and myself decided to go together so that we could try more pizzas.

We opted to start with the basic large Margherita as a baseline.  It featured a tangy and fresh-tasting tomato sauce that was well-seasoned.  Mozzarella was generously applied while the entire thing was topped with fresh-sliced tomatoes, fresh basil, minced garlic and olive oil.  Okay, let's get one thing straight first - they do not serve Neapolitan-style pizza.  Rather, it is thin-crust artisan pizza.  With that in mind, they succeed in spades.  Crunchy, well-charred and well-seasoned, the crust was thin and consistent in texture throughout.  It held up to the wet ingredients confidently.  For our second pizza, we tried the Meat Lovers consisting of pepperoni, sausage and meatballs.  As expected this was much heartier and greasier due to the meats.  Furthermore, there was a bit of spice due to the pepperoni.

We moved onto 2 small pizzas that we customized to our own specifications.  The first one featured a white sauce base with chicken, bacon, mozzarella, blue cheese, artichoke, mushroom, spinach, roasted red peppers, pesto, garlic and olive oil.  This was money as the pungent blue cheese played off the herby pesto and salty bacon.  Packed with flavour and ingredients, the crust held up well once again.  Our last pizza featured tomato sauce, mozzarella, chicken, sun dried tomato, mushroom, artichoke and pesto.  This was also good, but lacked the impact of the first pizza (which we collaboratively created).  Overall, I enjoyed all the pizzas at Hearthstone.  Considering that a small is only $7.00 and a large is $9.00, you won't need to spend much either.

*Food was complimentary*

The Good:
- Inexpensive
- Thin and crispy crust
- Unlimited toppings

The Bad:
- Not really a bad, but don't expect Neapolitan-style pizza because it isn't and they do not pretend to be either