Bottom's Up

Style: Pizza
Website: Bottom's Up Pizza

My Rating: 4.5 / 5 Stars

Likes:Fantastic "pizza," interesting decor, friendly service, gargantuan portion size

Dislikes:horrible parking, not enough quality beers on tap

On a dreary weekend in February, it was time to add a little culture to our lives. My husband and I took my grandma to the Virginia Fine Arts Museum and we spent the day there. There was quite a crowd because it was also "Chinafest" day. We saw a huge celebration ceremony for the Chinese New Year. After walking around and looking at art and chinese dragons for over two hours, we decided that we had had enough. None of us had eaten yet, and by 4:00 pm we were starving. So, we went to Bottom's Up.

When we walked in, there were only a few people sitting at tables near the bar that were getting their drink on. We sat down and rested because we were quite annoyed after trying to find a place to park. There was limited places to park on the street and we couldn't find one. We had to pay for parking. But once we sat down in the booth, the smell of pizza wafted over us and we became content. 

The decor in the restaurant is awesome. I love that they have the Richmond flood line painted on the wall after it flooded and closed in 2004 after Isabelle and Gaston. They also have twinkle lights on the ceiling and plenty of things to look at. 

 We each ordered two difference slices. Since the restaurant is far from us and we don't eat here often, I usually get two slices and end up taking two halves home for another home meal. I ordered first and requested a slice of ham and pineapple and the BBQ Chicken Pizza. After I ordered, the waiter asked me if I had been here before, I assume so that I realized that it is actually quite a lot of food. I told him I knew the slices were huge and that I would need a box. He laughed and nodded in understanding. But really, the slices are huge. HUGE. They are also not necessarily traditional pizza either. They are thick slabs of chewy and crusty bread that have toppings piled high on top. They don't skimp out on anything.

The picture below is one slice. My grandma ordered the Bottom's Up Loaded slice, that had Italian sausage, fresh ground beef, ham, pepperoni, sliced onions, green peppers, mushrooms and black olives. You can see in the picture below, that the slice is huge. When you take into all of the bread from the crust and the density of the greasy toppings and cheese, one slice is an easy meal and I am usually stuffed.

In the picture below, you can see the spread of our slices. At the top is the Greek Slice, which I thought was somewhat lacking in taste when compared to the others. At the bottom left is the Ham and Pineapple slice. This is my favorite slice of all the ones that I have tried. There is SO MUCH CHEESE. It is sweet from the pineapple and salty from the ham, and it wrapped together WITH A LOT OF CHEESE (are you noticing a theme here?). In the mid bottom is the BBQ Chicken slice. It had BBQ sauce slathered on instead of pizza sauce and was topped with chicken, and cheddar. I liked it, but the BBQ sauce was overpowering and it didn't taste like pizza at all. Not that it was bad, but it was not my favorite. My other favorite is the slice at the bottom left. The Mexican slice that they created is filled with taco seasoned meat, jalapenos, onions, and cheddar cheese. Normally it comes with a leaf of lettuce that has sour cream and salsa on top. This time they skimped on it and just gave us sour cream. It was no matter because it was still and explosion of taste and goodness. 

Bottom's Up pizza is a fabulous place to go in Richmond. It is a great place to take a date, a large group of people, or family. This pizza just serves any purpose you might need!