Indie Pizzas

Hoboken Pie

718 Red River, 477-4256
www.hobokenpie.com
Tuesday-Friday, 11:30am-2:30am; Saturday-Monday, 5pm-2:30am

Hoboken sits on the west side of Red River, next to Bull McCabe's, and is owned by Jason Daniels and Matt Getchell. Hoboken does 14-inch and 20-inch "Jersey-inspired" pies (or by the slice), a rectangular Sicilian pie, and three different salads. There is limited space for dining inside and semilimited parking for pickup, but they do deliver Downtown and will bring you a pie if you are in any of the local clubs (if the club permits, of course).

There was a glitch with our order: Hoboken's press said that they open at 11am, but when we called at 11am to place a pickup order, they had just turned on their ovens, which take considerable time to warm up. Noon-ish was a better time estimate; they now open at 11:30am. We got a 14-inch pie ($12.50, or 8.1 cents per square inch). The thin-style dough was a little chewy, with a refrigerated taste; we guessed that it was left over from the previous day. It had portions of nice char but could have cooked more evenly. Foldability was fine, but where the pizza had been portioned, it was like the dough was mashed at the cuts rather than sliced. The sauce was crushed tomatoes with a sweet finish and restrained garlic. Cheese was fine, with good strings, but tasted a little sharper than most. Sausage was a soft-textured version of the sliced variety, without much discernible taste of fennel, spiciness, or herbs.

All in all, not our favorite pie, although they do have legions of devout fans. Maybe we were just too early, and Hoboken hadn't yet found its groove that particular day.