Carrots, hot dogs and anchovies? You can get all those ingredients and even weirder ones at Big Tomato Pizza.
One person's perfect pizza might send someone else running. Most restaurants don't get much more exotic than pineapple, but Big Tomato Pizza sports some unlikely ingredients, and easily the most eclectic topping assortment in town.
Hot dogs and zucchini, carrots and peas, apples and Cajun tuna, Doritos and ricotta cheese. If you want something a little (or a lot) different, Big Tomato is probably up your alley.
"We had some guys come in one time and order cauliflower, carrots, anchovies, potatoes and artichokes," co-owner and chef Dave Fenton said. "I said 'What, did someone lose a bet?' And one of them said 'Yeah, he did.'"
Fenton says Spam is a popular choice for a lot of regulars, and that honey and garlic is a weird-sounding combo that gets a lot of requests. Fenton's personal favorite is Cajun tuna with pesto.
Jennifer Rude, 23, regularly orders a pizza with alfredo, honey, garlic, onion and pineapple (sometimes tomatoes). She likes the choices at Big Tomato because she's vegetarian. Her options can be limited for late-night dining.
"Honey with alfredo is really good, way better than alfredo by itself," Rude said. "The taste combo is pretty awesome, even when you're sober."
Rude has tried every veggie on the menu in one pizza combo or another. A past favorite is jalapenos, pineapple, garlic with alfredo. She says the spice of the jalapenos mixes well with the sweetness of the pineapple.
When it comes to late-night single slices, you can always count on Big Tomato having pepperoni, cheese, sausage and pineapple with Canadian bacon, but the other slices are left up to the cashier and chefs. Each night, the restaurant offers something known as the "holdover pie," an odd combo (like carrots and sauerkraut) that helps ensure that if nothing else, Big Tomato will have at least one pizza that is unlikely to be eaten too quickly. But Fenton said even the holdover pie slices end up sold out each night.
"They end up selling more than you would think, and we've had some catch on over the years," Fenton said. "It comes from people wanting to be adventurous."
