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This Week News wrote Pie-maker gets his pizza hand ready again
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
By Gary Seman Jr.
Bill Yerkes is at it again. After a brief hiatus from making traditional Napoli-style pizzas, Yerkes is again ready to put a pie in your face.
Yerkes is subletting Eleni-Christina Bakery in the evenings for his latest pizza enterprise, bonoTOGO (as in “to go”) — just in time for the Gallery Hop on Saturday. Although the place’s address is 641 N. High St., the storefront actually faces Russell Street, about 60 feet west of the main drag.
What a great idea- bakery during the morning/afternoon and pizza joint in the evening. Menus for this place were taped above the mailboxes where I live last night. Selection and prices look great. I hope it works out for them.
:oops: I should be a better critical reader. . .
Ha! Sorry, I had to give you a hard time. ;)
Let us know if you try out the pizza. I’m ready for some right now!
Tried it tonight and thought it was just OK. I was hoping for a bit less generic tasting.
Just got done trying it out and overall I was a bit disappointed. I asked how large the pizzas were when I called (thankfully) and found out that they’re 8-10 inch pizzas. The woman on the phone said she ate a whole one herself for dinner, so I figured we should do the three for Anne & I if she wants to have leftovers for lunch tomorrow. I ordered the Margarita, Oahu (misspelled on the menu), and Pepperoni pizzas.
Drove over 20 minutes later, walked inside to find out they don’t take credit cards at all. Thankfully, Chase is my bank, and there’s an ATM around the corner. Let this be a warning for everyone else though. Bring cash.
Paid for the pizzas (I assume tax is included because $20 is all the nice lady there charged) and headed home.
The pizzas were all very thin. Crust was good although a bit chewy, but the sauce was sort of weak. Didn’t taste like there was any seasoning to it. The Margerita was a bit flavorless, the Oahu was a little better, and the Pepperoni was the best of the three. I use “best” as a relative term because I can think of at least 20 other places I could spend $20 on pizza and have enjoyed it more.
Anne ate a whole one herself and I had one and a half (I was fairly hungry though). Just one pizza from here may not fill up most people.
For those who live in walking distance, I can see this being a decent neighborhood option, and $8 for dinner isn’t really all that bad. For me though, it’s too far out of the way for something I’m not going to be fully satisfied with. I’ll hold out for other options and keep waiting for good pizza to come around on the Near East Side. Planks is only a short drive down Parsons anyway.
I’m curious to hear what other people think though. It sounds like some of their other specialty pizzas could be pretty good with the vast array of toppings they have, so if someone names one that really stands out I’d be willing to give it one more shot.
Well, the only thing is, there are so many options for pizza in the Short North that your review doesn’t give me much hope for the place considering all the competition there is at the other restaurants like Surly Girl, Press Grill, Marcella’s, etc.
I can be the biggest bitcher about everything in the world and I can tell you I had a great experience there tonight. We thought the food was great. Had three pizzas (Margherhita, Pepperoni and a Veggie), brought our own bottle of grape juice ;) sat outside and watched the suckers trolling down to Marcellas.
They could have different seating and I’m sure they will upgrade the outdoor seating through some gifting here and there, but this rocks to have this little (not so little) secret back there. This is real city innovation. Congrats to Kent for taking a chance on this project and thanks for the entrepreneurs for giving a our neighborhood something different than the usual. I’ll definitely be eating there again.
Beats the shit out of Fabians, which I can’t even stomach.
The grease trap problem is the reason for now Grandview location.
From ThisWeekNews
Regarding the linked article, $25k to install a grease trap seems like a lot. The price for a rather large (40-50#) greasetrap at Worly is around $900. I imagine the problem is, the place isn’t “plumbed” as a restaurant. As for whether a greasetrap is needed, if he’s washing dishes, he needs one.
http://www.columbusunderground.com/archives/bonoTOGOmenu.pdf (two page pdf)
this is the same menu they had at the kiborne location. yes! the hulk is one of my favorites. i love the evolution of desserts for bono: first crepes in kilborne, then belgian waffles in delaware, and now cream puffs in the sn.
Maybe we’ll give The Hulk a shot sometime. I trust your judgement. ;)
Tried it last night for the first time and a thought it was fantastic. I had the capricossa and my girlfriend had the bianca. We thought that both were excellent. The ingredients were very fresh and the crust was light, crisp, and flavorful. If you’re looking for a limp, greasy slice (a la Papa John’s, which I admittedly crave once in awhile) then this is not the place for you.
These people really care about what they’re doing, which I came to realize when the owner, after pulling my pizzas out of the oven, told me that the crust on the capricossa was not up to par and that he would fire another one up for me. But that was just the beginning. When he finished making the pizzas a few minutes later, he brought them out to me on two plates, despite the fact that I’d told him earlier that I wanted them to go. I asked him if I could have them boxed, to which he replied “no no no, they taste much better if you eat them off of a plate rather than out of a box. JUST TAKE THE PLATES HOME AND BRING THEM BACK SOMETIME.” In fairness, I had already told him that I lived pretty much next door, but I was still floored. He handed me the plates and told me to enjoy my pies. I was almost out of the door when I realized that he had forgotten to charge me. I turned around, reminded him to take my $16, and headed home with my plates in-hand.
We need more places like this in our community, run by colorful people who really love what they do and who care more about getting it right and making people happy than they do about turning a profit. I’m definitely going to be a regular. :D
hm. think i just found lunch!
Open 5-12. Probably a lil too late for lunch, unless of course you buy tonight and pack tomorrow :wink:
Maybe getting the pizzas to go was our problem but I will stand by my statement that I was less than impressed with the to-go versions.
Yeah, I can see how that would be in issue. The best thing about the pizzas is the crisp crust, and they probably lose a lot of that crispiness during a car ride in a box.
Colleen and I are trapped in bonotogo. street flooded. have bottle of Nebbiolo from burgundy room.
do not send help. repeat. do not send help.
pat and i are going to pick some pizza up for shakespeare in the park tonight. i’m hoping its as good as spacca napoli in chicago. i’m so excited!!
I’ve been busy since last night, so I haven’t had a chance to report on our trip to Bonotogo, but it was well worth a shout-out. Colleen started craving pizza when friend Suzi’s email raving about the place arrived at about noon. She told me to look for the thread on CU, which I said I hadn’t seen. (Five minutes later: “Ah… I thought it was some U2 thing.”) A couple of minutes after that we had printed out the menu, and we were sold.
Then the waiting. And then the RAIN.
Undeterred, we jumped in the car just after 5. How wet could it get, we thought? As we waded, shin-deep, across West Russell Street (awash curb to curb) while being soaked from above despite our umbrellas, we regretted asking that question. The cars that drove past us sent waves up to the door of the restaurant.
We decided to eat inside.
Colleen headed through some indoor passageways and cebpherq n obggyr bs jvar sebz gur Ohethaql Ebbz while I dried myself off. We got to chatting with Bill and Carlos, who were delightful company, as the rain continued to pelt down. Before long we had a quiet little party going, and completely unprompted they had whipped up a gratis pizza — the Bianca; a real winner — and brought it out for us to try while we decided. Colleen ordered the Hulk, and I chose the San Giorgio.
What to say about the pizzas? First of all, I can see why they wouldn’t travel well. The crust at the very center of the San Giorgio had gotten a bit limp because of the sauce and cheese; Carlos told me that that’s why genuine Italian pizza doesn’t translate well into the hand-held-slice American context. I’d imagine the crust gets soggier over time. But that’s really the worst I have to say about the pizza, and it’s a very minor criticism. In its favor, it was delicious. The thin crust was just crispy enough and quite flavorful, the sauce was delicious, the toppings were fresh and wonderful… mmm! They really know their stuff; the pizzas are top-notch, and it sounds like the all-green Hulk is made with a similar but changing roster of ingredients that is based on whatever is fresh and available.
As we sat there, a guy from across the way came in and ordered a few pizzas for his brother’s family. Then he came back and ordered a couple more. And then a couple more. Finally he brought the kids over to meet the people who made the pizzas.
I think we were there for a couple of hours, all told. The time just flew by. Bill made us a couple of demitasses of Danesi espresso and even refilled mine when I knocked it (and myself, and my chair) over with an unexpectedly titanic sneeze. We maybe could have gotten by with just two pizzas, but we were definitely satisfied with three. The best part, though, was the lovely, friendly, happy people behind the counter.
Holy shit, I need to get down on some togo asap!
pat and i went tonight and were very pleased. we had the bianca, the margherita and the 5 cheese. we didn’t finish all three, though we came close. the bianca was my favorite while i believe pat enjoyed the 5 cheese the most. these were followed up with complimentary espresso.
the owner is fantastically friendly and funny to boot! i wish the very best for this place (though i guess if it does well enough, it’ll move? who knows..either way, i want the pizza to stick around) and can’t wait to return to try some more!
Went here with my girlfriend last night. The owner is a trip. Very funny guy. The pizza is terrific. I hope he stays there longer than a month. I had the marguerita and she had the verudune (?).
Not that it mattered as the owner would have let me pay later, but they do not take credit cards.
Made me feel as if I was in a city as we sat on Russell, with life going on around us. Liked the atmosphere.