Sal and Mookie’s

As I was saying…we love pizza.

When Sunday rolls around and we don’t make our own, there are a handful of restaurants we fall back on for pizza including Soulshine Pizza Factory, Newk’s (the newest obsession) and Sal and Mookie’s.

Ben routinely craves pizza and before Christmas we made a visit to Sal and Mookie’s for dinner.

No matter the day or time, it’s always bustling with a fair amount of families and kids. Luckily we popped into the adjacent Pi Bar for a brief moment and heard our name shortly after. The hostess led us to a table on the outside porch, which sounds crazy in December, but the heaters and plastic covering made it cozy.

Unless you have a reasonable dietary restriction or weird aversion I’d stick with their main attraction, the pizza. I recommend this not because the other items I’ve tasted were sub-par, but it is a pizza joint after all.

On previous visits I’ve had the Spinach and Artichoke Dip, Cheese Toasted Ravioli (no comparison to STL), Portabella Fries, Caesar Salad, Mesclun Greens Salad, Spinach Salad, Greek Salad, Chopped Salad (yum), Brownstone Panini, Gennaro Lombardi Pizza, Empire State Pizza, some sort of Barbecue Chicken Pizza (blech), and Chicken Alfredo Pasta. Not all at once, of course.

This particular night I started with a Mesclun Greens side salad with Italian Vinaigrette. They were a little stingy on the tomatoes and Kalamata olives (one of each).

We ordered a large Pepperoni Pizza and large Riker’s Island Pizza to share at the table. The Riker’s Island Pizza is a fancy version of supreme, topped with: Italian plum tomato sauce, mozzarella, pepperoni, spicy Italian sausage, Canadian bacon, green bell peppers, mushrooms, red onions, and Kalamata olives.

Sometimes the flavors of the individual ingredients are drowned out by the competing toppings, nevertheless it’s hot and chewy. The pizza is thin and the outer crust is thick. The slices are floppy and fold-able. The pies can be greasy, but ours regularly include pepperoni.

Although I’ve been to New York and have eaten a lot of pizza, I have yet to eat pizza in New York. I can only assume this comes close, but isn’t quite NYC perfection.

And like any given Sunday in the NFL, some pies are better than others depending on the day. The best pizza I’ve had there has been at lunch, it was more crispy and flavorful. The worst has been kind of doughy and bland. Landing in the middle is decent pizza at a somewhat high price.

Your best bet is the lunch special during the weekday when they offer slices of three different large pizzas: one with tomato sauce, one cheese based, and one vegetarian. For $5.5o you get a slice of the day and a side salad or cup of soup.

They are also one of the few places around that resembles an ice cream parlor. We were the happy benefactors of a messed up banana split order that evening, if such a thing exists.

I’ve never had a problem with service and since it’s a lively, casual place the dining room is nearly full whenever we go. It’s not the best and it’s not the worst, but for Jackson, it will do.

Sal and Mookie’s
565 Taylor Street
Jackson, MS 39216
Phone 601-368-1919
www.salandmookies.com