Bazbeaux Pizza

http://www.bazbeaux.com/
This weekend, we had a birthday shindig for a friend at Bazbeaux on Mass Ave.  The first interesting thing about this outing was, I didn't realize Bazbeaux had moved across the street from it's location.  We had walked there from the Starbucks down the street and saw huge white paper blocking all of the windows.  That was a little worrysom.  But when you finally get really close to the paper, you can see that it says in tiny black pin markings, "Moved across the street next to Ball & Bisquit."  Well, after finding it, we walk in to realize, they wouldn't let the coordinator of our outing get seating together for such a large group.  Part of the group had got there at five, and were seated at a fairly large table.  Another part of the group had gotten there at 5:30 since, this was a "Surprise" for the Birthday girl that all of her friends and family were showing up while she was eating pizza.  Then, another part of the group was showing up at six.  (Some even showed up later than that, but most of us were done by about seven.)  When a couple more of the six o'clock group got there, I put our name in for a table.  I told the guy seating people, we were part of the birthday party, and he seemed very annoyed.  Then, after about twenty minutes, part of the original group had left, and the coordinator asked us to sit down where they had been.  I went up and asked the other person taking down names, and she said she would find out. Then, the first guy came back, and I explained, we were offered spaces at the original table.  He seemed extremely annoyed and blurted out, "WHATEVER!" So, I went and sat down with the group. 
I usually end up with the same guy as my server almost every time I've gone to that Bazbeaux.  He's the guy with the bald head and the blonde handlebar mustache.  This time, we had a new guy. As soon as he realized that we had sat down and wanted to order, he got our drink orders.  Baxbeaux carries Coke products, which includes Mr. Pibb. I like Mr. Pibb!  He came back with the drinks and asked for our order. 

I ordered us a Greek Salad with Spinach instead of lettuce with Cucumber dressing for me and Ranch for him.   We split a small.  I prefer Spinach over lettuce any day.  Plus, since it's a "Greek Salad," I find the spinach better with the "Greek" toppings.  Maybe I decided that spinach was "greek" in my head.  I don't think that is really the case.  On the salad, they put pitted olives, feta cheese, shaved parmesian cheese, and tomato.  Their Creamy Cucumber dressing has a very cool creamy taste with a good hint of the cucumber flavor, which I love! I've tried bottled Creamy Cucumber dressings, and nothing is as good as Bazbeaux!  I forgot to ask, and I couldn't find on the web site whether or not Bazbeaux makes their own salad dressings.  The ingredients they use for the salad always seem extremely fresh. 

 
For pizza I ordered the B.O.T. with Wheat crust.  I LOVE the option to get wheat crust at Bazbeaux.  Even though pizza isn't always healthy, the option to have wheat crust makes you feel a little better about eating it! Now, you may ask, what is a B.O.T. pizza?  Well, the B. is... you guessed it, Bacon,  the O. is onion, and the T. is Tomato.  It also has fresh cut basil all over the top of the pizza.  The bacon is in nice size pieces and had a nice smokey flavor.  The tomato are cut into chunks instead of slices and are very fresh.  The onion is red onion, which not only had a nice sweet flavor when cooked, but adds to the visual effect of the pizza. The sauce is sweet with a little bit of tang.  The sauce almost looks like it could be freshly crushed tomatoes.  The cheese is pretty creamy and melts very well.  The only thing about the crust is, it's a bit on the crunchy side.  I always save some of my Creamy Cucumber dressing to dip my crust in. 
I find that Bazbeaux has a comfortable atmosphere with local flavor.  The move to across the street gave the Mass Ave location a ton more space.  Maybe that will help them get more people in and seated faster on busy nights.  That has been an issue in the past, 45-60 minute waits in a very small confined space.  I have been to this location and the Broad Ripple location, and both have the same type of atmosphere.  I've never had a huge problem with group seating before this time.  They do like to have all of your group there before they will even take your name.  More restaraunts are becoming that way around this area.  I would recommend Bazbeaux as a whole package, the atmosphere and the food.  They are also known for their specialties pizzas. You can look those up on the website's menu.  I give Bazbeaux three and a half pizza pies out of fourth!  Totally worth the experience!