Bill's Pizza Pub

The architecture: part horror house, part-British pub.

 Last time I went to Bill's was somewhere around 1989. Back then, pizza was a different animal. Just the idea of having a pizza restaurant within driving distance, for most of North Carolina, was to say the least, a luxury. Most venues followed the typical Pizza Hut concept of the time which involved dark dining-rooms, 45-60 minute waits for food, and a juke box in some corner. A lot has changed since then, and now the companies which set the standard for Friday nights and families getting together to talk about their week, have become the take-out $10 mediocrity which patrons scurry off in their SUVs with, to hide behind their big-screens. Where are the old-fashioned Pizza restaurants? The truth, they're in the middle of no where.

For $30, I would have preferred to see the pizza fill that pan.

Bill's Pizza Pub, a literal public house that at one time did serve alcohol (but no longer does) is located on Randleman Road just outside of Greensboro. It's located in this pizza purgatory between Greensboro and Randleman, and the property resembles a cross between Boss Hogg's Boar's Nest and a Cold-War brick built knock off of an English style pub. There's absolutely nothing you can possibly say to describe this place. It's both warm and friendly, but frighteningly dark and isolated. The service is kind and quick, and the pizza deliciously fantastic.

Inside the building, Bill's is composed of "chambers", or rooms where the doors have been removed. Each room has a different flavor, decorated uniquely, as if to suit the eater in both seating and toppings. Some rooms are quaint with two tables, while others are more like a normal restaurant dining room. If the power were to go out, you'd think you were in a horror house, but when dimly lit and filled with the laughter of pizza eating customers- it's quite charming.

Is that the after-life in there, or just really good pizza?

The pizza, is very similar to Sir Pizza, (square cut and insanely addictive) though the portions seem smaller, and the cost more expensive. What you trade in quantity you gain in diversity. Try a macaroni and hot-dog pizza, or a baked potato pizza, or one of their famous taco pizzas with lettuce, tomato, aged-cheddar, and sour cream on it.

We grabbed Bill's Pub Special, a typically sized large pizza with the usual southern foray of imitation meats and veggies piled on a thin manufactured crust with tons of cheese. What might seem like a un-inspired, overtly processed pizza is now niche southern style delicacy that's been lost among the now modern day artisan efforts of main-stream American chains. It's delicious, horrible for your health, and uniquely a countrified incarnation of a Italian food it no longer resembles except in name.

It's in that sense, I've got to say, Bill's Pizza Pub has a unique product that while lost among most modern chains, is a nostalgic, unique bite, of sensationally different pizza ingredients and southern hospitality that's survived the evolution its genre.

For one of the most interesting dining experiences in all of the Piedmont Triad, double-back to the past with some 1980's pizza at Bill's Pizza Pub.