I don't know if any of you follow his pizza reviews, but he had a lot of nice things to say about Indiana.
Dave Portnoy from Barstool in Bloomington eating Mother Bears Pizza. Link
- Thread starter VanPastorMan
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Thanks for sharing...I have fond memories of doing Karaoke there as a starting point on my 21st birthday. (First of MANY spots we hit that night.) I honestly don't have any memories of their pizza. Fun that he was on campus though, and he was certainly dressed the part! GO IU!
You sure you're not thinking of Bears for karaoke?
I'm a young buck but I don't think they've ever had karaoke at MB.
Bear’s Place was good at one time, but MB’s was always overrated, like most of the Bloomington food offerings.
Johnny Rockets was the best pizza in Bloomington but sadly I believe they closed
Where is that thread watch bell again so that I can make sure it is not checked.
Yeah, I've always kinda wondered why a big college town hasn't at least had some great pizza. I can understand them not being loaded with higher end stuff -- college kids have always spent more money on booze than food. But you'd think they'd at least have at least one really good pizza place.
Quantity Is much more important than quality? Understand why there’s a dearth of high end stuff (which likely leads to the grade inflation that elevates the average places to outstanding ratings), but it never made sense why a top notch pizza can’t be found.
it was good in the 80s and I have not been back TBH. Then again it looks like he ordered plain cheese pizza so I am not sure that you can expect a whole lot.
I remember loving their Dante's Inferno and their meat lovers. They used to have their own sauce, which was better than most.
I remember loving their Dante's Inferno and their meat lovers. They used to have their own sauce, which was better than most.
As a broke college kid, MB was a splurge compared to PE or Pizzago.
Yep, PE was all I could afford and it always did the trick.
I disagree with The Prez here. I like MB and always have. It is not the best on campus...Nick's is very good, Lennie's, Bucceto, Goodfellas. Knowing his preferences i knew he would not be a fan. I am generally not a NY style pizza fan so we rarely agree. Love his act though.
Greeks is not in my top 5 but I do like their sweeter sauce.
The great food space in Bloomington is very crowded so lots of choices. Campus eats could do a full season just in Btown with choices to spare.
Greeks is not in my top 5 but I do like their sweeter sauce.
The great food space in Bloomington is very crowded so lots of choices. Campus eats could do a full season just in Btown with choices to spare.
Swing In was likely well before your time. Good 2 AM pizza delivered.
I wish I agreed with that. But I've never been impressed with any of the food options in B'ton. There are plenty of bar food types of places -- which is to be expected. And those are what they are. But beyond that....it's a lot of meh -- including (and maybe especially) the pizza.
Take a trip down fourth st and try some of the ethnic places.
I like Upland, Uptown, Lion, Zagrebs, Tap, Big Woods, The Spoon for Bfast, Lennie's...Hell i like the Trojan horse Gyro (partially because you can get in even when arriving late for a BBall game). There is an awesome Asian place on Third i believe near downtown...no English anywhere. Love the fact that Btown does not rely on chains like other BIG campuses we won't mention.
He always does cheese...one bite. I like the Inferno when I am in the mood. Hot stuff.
Garcia's. A few weeks ago, someone was asking about the pizza place over at the Gables and I couldn't remember Garcia's for the life of me.
That was me...the big square? slice. Filled me up between classes but it was basically bread. I couldn't remember either.
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I'm pretty sure I've been to all of those. They're all good -- I do really like Big Woods. Almost forgot about that one. Good Quaff On beers, love the outdoor seating area, cool building in general. And the food is pretty good.
I do fully agree with you on the chain restaurant thing. It's not that I think the food options on Bton are bad. I just think there's room for improvement.
I hate to go comparing steakhouses and such. Because you just wouldn't expect a college town to have a killer steakhouse. LZ's is probably the best in town -- and compare that to something like Jeff Ruby's or even St. Elmo.
But wouldn't it be nice if Bloomington offered a pizza like Bazbeaux or Brozinni in Indy, Oley's in FW, Rocco's in SB, or Turoni's in Evansville? I hate that Portnoy finally comes to Indiana and he ends up at MoBears, of all places!
Yeah, I wasn't a fan of the pizza for that very reason. Weren't they the flying tomato brothers or something like that? I want to say the logo was a hot air balloon.
Call me crazy, I think Bazbeaux's is extremely overrated. It's different than Mother Bears but I don't think it's that good, prefer Some Guys or Puccini's to Bazbeaux's. Hand tossed Mother Bear's is ok and can understand why it's not liked, but I do think they have a very good deep dish/square pizza.
Exactly. Decent to good bar food, but really nothing beyond that. If one is out and about in the world, what is viewed as high end dining in Bton is pretty average hotel / airport / chain restaurant food anywhere else. It’s fine for a college town and about what you see in other Big 10 locations (Chicago and the Twin Cities being notable exceptions), but it’s just average.
Ha, I guess I need to get out to more Pizza joints becuase the only one on your list that i have been to was Bazbeaux in BR and Car-mel By the Corn. I thought that was good. And maybe some of my reactions are based on nostalgia because like The Prez said so well...IU students love IU and that doesn't change as an Alum...in fact it may grow, I am pretty objective about most things, but i am not totally objective about Btown.
I guess I would not classify anything in Btown as "high end dining". Not enough call for that in a college town.
As Crazed said, it’s decent bar food. Sandwich or a slice and a beer, some okay ethnic offerings, a couple of F2T’s. Definitely some choices, though nothing that stands out much. It is strange that there’s not more, but Im sure ”more” wouldn’t be economically viable.
My favorites are Mother Bears, Avers, and Pizza X. But hey we like what we like, I am just glad to have several options of pizza in Bloomington.
I always thought Bloomington had a ton of good options. I know that when girls’ parents come from all over, NYC, CA, Texas, Fl, etc, they all rave about the food here. I’m not picky about my pizza, but getting cheese at Mother Bear’s is a travesty. It’s all about the toppings there.
Yeah, I get the nostalgia. And I also realize that the college town market isn’t going to be like a traditional city. And who doesn’t love going to Nick’s and other iconic haunts of Btown? It’s not like I’m complaining about them. I wouldn’t change them a bit.
I just cringe that Portnoy comes to Indiana, does a pizza review — and it’s at friggin’ MB’s. There are dozens better pizza places in the state. And that’s the one that gets the national attention. Grrr...
MB was great in the 1980's as stated above. Have no Idea how it is today. I liked the deep dish they made. Kind of a Detroit pizza like Noble Roman's deep dish. I prefer Nicks but always open to something new. Go Hoosiers!
Garcia’s had pizza by the slice and their lunch special of a slice and salad for about 4 bucks was great. That was at least 25 years ago, though.
From the many ethnic options, to good sushi, to Zagreb’s, Uptown, Farm, Malibu, Scenic View, Lennies, Social, bar food, Yogis, Nicks, Tap, Irish Lion, Feast, Sweetgrass, a new one called Village Pub that has an interesting menu, Big Woods, Trojan Horse, Buffalouies, DaVincis, Truffles, and I’m sure I’m leaving some out. Not sure we have much to complain about...
The place that kinda makes me laugh is Vincennes. In that one little town, you have the following pizza joints: Bill Bobe’s, Larry Bobe’s, and Byron Bobe’s.
I’m sure somebody here knows the back story. I’ve only been to Bill Bobe’s, which I believe is the oldest of the 3. It was pretty good. Better than MB’s anyway.
Must be kinda like Adidas and Puma.
I’m sure somebody here knows the back story. I’ve only been to Bill Bobe’s, which I believe is the oldest of the 3. It was pretty good. Better than MB’s anyway.
Must be kinda like Adidas and Puma.
I remember Swing In back in the late seventies. Not the best, but affordable for us college kids.
That’s definitely part of the issue here.
But pizza is notoriously cheap to make and, because of this, I’ve always heard that it offers unusually high margins in the food service industry. So you’d think that college towns would have some good ones, despite kids being on limited budgets.
