Located about a 15 minute drive away from campus in Clemmons, the Brick Oven Pizzeria offers some of the best pizza to be found in the area. This restaurant has plenty on the menu to choose from, but I find that I can never pass up their brick oven style pizza.

Although this restaurant may be an undiscovered treasure to many Wake Forest students, locals know this place and frequent it all days of the week. I’ve been to this restaurant many times, and the last time I went was during their Tuesday night pizza and salad buffet ($5.50). Walking into the restaurant you can see the fires in the brick ovens roaring in the kitchen behind the cashier’s stand. As you go a little further into the restaurant, you will spot the pizza and salad buffet adorned with wine bottles and grape vines. Nothing fancy, but the food’s what draws people to this place, not the Italian ambiance.

We waited for about 10 minutes on one of the wooden benches inside the restaurant. During the wait, an elderly gentleman on his way out leaned down and said to me and two other Wake students, “It’s worth the wait boys; real good stuff in there.” The busy-bodied Northerners who accompanied me didn’t understand this unprovoked gesture of kindness but nevertheless respected it—now that’s what I call southern hospitality!

Upon being seated our waitress greeted us with a warm welcome and brought us plates for the buffet. The Brick Oven’s pizza is best characterized by their crust: light and airy with a crisp exterior, which is the delicious outcome of the high temperature and even heat distribution of the brick oven.

The brick oven is the exemplary southern-run restaurant. Go for the great tasting food, quantity and cheap prices, and find yourself graced with the hospitable southern staff.