Spin! Neapolitan Pizza ~ regional chain :

First visit: Jun 2016 (Southlake, TX - closed)

They're still open in Richardson and Frisco. Most of their locations are in the Kansas City area.

Spin! represents the latest fad sweeping America: Artisan Pizza meets Craft Beer. Something akin to Grimaldi's, but with more focus paid to locally made beers. In fact, we tried two such places while in West Virginia last week: Backyard Pizza and Raw Bar in Huntington and Pies and Pints in Charleston. It's the latter that is most like Spin! in that it's both a small(ish) chain, and that their menu offerings are similar.

If you've read these pages long enough, you'll know that Mrs. RJG isn't the biggest pizza fan you'll encounter. But she likes these kind of pizzas. The Napoletana style, that we first spoke about long ago at the now closed Campania, just a few blocks away. For our two visits so far, we tried the Italian Sausage and Onion 12 inch pizza. It was just the right texture and crispiness, while the pizza sauce is slightly sweet, cheese appropriately gooey, and the ingredients a higher grade that what one would find at the laughable Pie Five for example (editorial: Pie Five is nothing more than Pizza Inn made in front of you, but on a smaller pie - seriously?). We also like to split a salad, and their Caesar is excellent, with cold crisp Romaine, shaved parmesan, garlic croutons, and an excellent smooth dressing, not thick and nasty like some Caesar's can be. Oh and they include hot pizza bread as well (as if you need more bread... but it is good!). We'll be certain to try other pizzas in the future. They also feature gelato, which we have yet to sample.

Drink: As alluded to earlier, Spin! does put a focus on craft beers. Now it's not the most robust selection (7 beers I think?), but at least they are mostly local, and since they are from Kansas City, they also have a couple of Boulevard's on tap. Though I would wish they'd bring along some more craft breweries with them that we can't get here otherwise. But I'm sure that's way too costly (and as reader Mervis correctly points out, they would need to get label approval from the TABC, which is not something one should expect from a pizza place!). Their Texas beer selection is somewhat typical of the area, and they probably should have at least one Shannon on tap to support Northeast Tarrant. They do have Grapevine's Lakefire on tap though. They also have weekly "pint nights" where they feature a local brewery.

Location: In the "suburbs" (lol) of Southlake Town Square. You'll find Spin on the north side of Southlake Blvd, east of the main square, next to Pei Wei. If memory serves this used to be Blue Mesa, one of the more miserable meals we ever had. It appears Spin! has exorcised those demons. It's a large space, with plenty of seating. Walk in, order at the counter, receive your "number block". And then from there it's full service. So they hand you a swiped credit card receipt, and you add the tip later. It's a unique approach, but I think it's a good concept really.

Notes: Spin! is a chain from Kansas City that is branching out into major metropolitan areas around the US in a decidedly slow growth strategy. Fortunately we were second on the map, and there are now a few locations in DFW. On our first visit, the manager noticed our pizza wasn't shaped correctly, and gave us a free one on the house. Wow! We didn't even notice honestly. Perhaps it's because we didn't bring a "free pizza" coupon. Whatever the case, an excellent gesture, and a good way to develop brand loyalty. Oh - and I do recommend you join their Spin club (rarely do we say this). It's free and phone number driven, so you don't have to carry anything with you. They actually offer serious coupons ($5 on our last visit!).

6/13/16 (new entry)