Datebook Diner: Deep-dish pie stars at Wig & Pen Pizza

Chicago-Style Stuffed Pizza with Mushrooms, Sausage, Onion and Green Pepper: $17.99
(Credit: James D. Fidler/The Register)

I've got an idea for the restaurant space of the now-closed Firkin and Fox pub in West Des Moines. Move a Wig and Pen into it. That way, I wouldn’t have to drive to Ankeny for good deep-dish pizza.

What? In a Chicago-meets-London kind of deal, Wig and Pen is a strip-mall pizza-sandwich-pasta joint in the guise of a British pub. Besides Ankeny, there are two other locations — in Iowa City and Coralville, where the restaurant originated.

Ambiance: Wood, etched-glass effects, engravings of jolly English scenes and bits of British memorabilia give a pub-like feel to the place, but the bright Perkins-style lighting cuts down on coziness. TVs are in view from just about everywhere.

Menu: Main attractions include thin-crust and deep-dish pizza, though a good selection of burgers, main-dish salads, sandwiches and pasta dishes round out the menu. Fish and Chips is the only obvious nod to British pub food.  
    
The food: Onion rings are fried so crisp they can be held between the finger and the thumb for droop-less O’s of flaky-sweet goodness. Gripe, however, I must. The only size available is a $6.25 basket. Why are these — and so many other appetizers in our culinary landscape — sized to serve four to six? The choice for a party of two is to either waste half the basket or, over time, end up weighing as much as a party of four.

As for the pizza, whether or not it exactly replicates its Chicago inspiration, I will not debate here. It is a killer pie — the thick, yeasty crust arrives layered cheese-first, then followed by the toppings and then a  fabulously bright and tangy sauce. It did, however, arrive less-than-hot in the center on the first try, but was quickly and cheerfully reheated. Bonus points, too, for the fresh mushrooms (it’s surprising how many otherwise good pizza joints use canned). 

The well-built Reuben brought respectable corned beef and admirably unsloppy amounts of sauerkraut, Swiss and thousand-island on greaselessly grilled marbled rye bread. 

The Wigatoni, a huge casserole of tomato-sauced pasta brimming with spicy-sweet fennel-enhanced sausage underneath a bubbly sheen of cheese, was tasty overall. But a less-than-appetizing watery liquid pooled at the bottom of the dish. Skip the rather perfunctory dinner salad.

Bottom line: While deep-dish pizza is the shoo-in here, the mostly successful sampling of other items augers well for the non-pizza side of the menu, too.

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