On a rainy day this past week, I wanted to pick something up for my friend Lois and me. I found a pizza place on East Brainerd Road that made pizzas with all fresh ingredients and you take it home to bake it yourself. Because they don’t cook it there or offer seating to eat in, their prices for gourmet pizza are very reasonable.

It was a downpour and just trying to get out of the car with my umbersol was hard enough, but I knew I had to try to get a photo of the place. I held out my camera trying to get a focused picture before my camera got wet and then I got out of the car to go inside.

I told the girl at the counter I had never been there before and to tell me what was good. She suggested the large ‘Five-meat Stuffed’ with Canadian bacon, pepperoni, sausage, hamburger, and bacon for $14 but I didn’t care to have all that meat. I like just a few toppings on my pizza.

They had ‘Chicago-style’ and ‘Vegetarian’ too. The ‘Signature Gourmet’ pizza was only $13 for a large and the ‘Thin Crust deLITE’ was just $11. I wanted to get a vegetarian and I liked the Gourmet Vegetarian with creamy garlic sauce, spinach, zucchini, mushroom, artichoke hearts, tomatoes and cheese.

That sounded wonderful! I knew Lois would be mad if I didn’t get something with meat though, so in order to have all the veggies I wanted on that pizza, I asked if they could just add chicken to the vegetarian pizza. Is that done? Isn’t that sort of like ordering a fattening meal with a diet coke?

It didn’t take them long to prepare it and I didn’t have to wait for it to cook. It was set up almost like a Subway restaurant and they added the fresh ingredients right in front of me. As they were making my pizza I spied the Dessert Pizza and the Cinnamon Wheel for $4.00 just staring at me. It looked tempting, but then I would have to order that diet coke just to off-set the calories!

They wrapped the pizza well and I was out the door… in the rain… trying to work my umbersol and hold a large pizza. I tried to hold it up like an Italian waiter but did I mention it was raining? And you know ol’ Arthur acts up when it’s raining. Luckily, my car was right by the door and I was able to open the door of my car but I could not let go of my umbersol to lay the large pizza in the passenger seat.

I somehow ducked low and let my umbersol rest between the opening of the car and the door. I got in carefully and laid the pizza down. This was a great idea but not on a rainy day. Lois just lived around the corner so when I pulled up, I honked the horn for her to come out and help me. Lois just stood there at the door. I told her to come hold the umbersol while I got the pizza out of the car but she said she didn’t want to get her hair wet. Lois goes to get her hair done each week at the beauty parlor and she has all kinds of fancy doo-wops to wrap her hair in to keep it from losing its curl for the week.

I decided to just make a run for it! It only took about 15 minutes for the pizza to bake. It was delicious! I was actually glad that I asked for chicken – because it went so well with the artichoke and spinach. I was not thrilled with the crust – but I haven’t found any pizza crust in Chattanooga that I really liked much.

The toppings were fresh and tasty. It made having pizza a little more fun than just delivery or popping one in the oven that comes from a cardboard box (and no telling how long ago it was prepared). I watched them prepare my pizza and I was glad I tried it. They have a location in Hixson too. Don’t wait for a rainy day… seriously! Go try a Papa Murphy’s pizza and tell them Willie Mae sent you.