Nickelberry's Pizza & Dewmocracy

Many native Eldridge-ians are surprised by the sudden change of name of Paul Revere Pizza. It is now Nickelberry's Pizza. Instead of the handsome horse rider, we now are welcomed to the restaurant by a giant Gerber baby wanna-be. What does a baby have to do with pizza? And I'm just gonna say it, no sense beating around the bush... Nickelberry's sounds a little too similar to Dingleberries, which does not excite my palate in the least.














To see if the pizza had changed at all, I gave Nickelberry's a call and ordered a medium pepperoni, our usual Paul Revere order. I was able to add a side of breadsticks for a nickel (ahh it all makes sense now). Well the old pizza patriot box has been replaced by the generic map of Italy or, as they call it, 'Italia.'














The bread sticks are coming! The bread sticks are coming! They arrived as usual, wrapped like an oversized baked potato.














I opened the pizza box and, lo and behold, it looked and smelled the same as Revere's pepperoni.














The bread sticks also looked the same, slightly browned and positioned around a reservoir of buttery garlic sauce.














The final test: Taste. Yep, Nickelberry's Pizza tastes exactly the same as P.R.'s. So what's the deal? I couldn't dig up any info, but it looks like Paul Revere is still a legit pizza chain, so the local owner must have parted ways with the franchise.

You have to have pop (some call it soda, they are backwards and weird) to wash down the grease and allow for maximum pizza burpage. Purpose: to combat the heart burn and allow you to once again enjoy the pepperoni goodness you just consumed.

I found the three new Mountain Dew flavors at Target, so I bought them for a side by side comparison. In the least surprising move ever, Richie drank all three.














The first flavor is White Out- a grapefruit and lemon lime soda. He describes it as 'Squirty.'














Not bad.














The second flavor is Typhoon. It blew him away.


















Actually, it just blew and ended up half full in the garbage atop my massive collection of kettle corn bags and skinny cow wrappers. He said it was too fruity. I took a sip and agreed. It tastes like a very sweet fruit punch with overwhelming pineapple flavor.


















The third flavor is Distortion, which is essentially Mountain Dew with an extra kick of lime. Hee-yah

















Our connoisseur swishes the green liquid to allow for maximum taste bud action.


















It vaguely reminded him of the limey green rivers served at our favorite ice cream parlor, Lagomarcino's. But really, it's just Dew with more fake lime flavor.

Congratulations White-Out! A 12-pack of you is now stowed in our refrigerator to be consumed over the next...oh 5 hrs or so during non-stop Modern Warfare matches. You can vote for your favorite flavor HERE.

Pizza and pop- a classic American pairing, much like Jim and Pam, they are meant to be together.

If you liked Paul Revere's simple and greasy pizza, go ahead and try dingle..i mean Nickelberry's Pizza. Tell them the giant baby sent you.

PIZZA TUESDAY

I decided to declare today "Pizza Tuesday." So I ordered a medium pepperoni from Paul Revere's and a small bubble bread from Winners. Both are in Eldridge and both are locally owned. Paul Revere's is a chain with locations mostly in Iowa. The Eldridge location opened in 1991. It is located next to GiGi's Dance Studio at 1084 E. LeClaire Rd. I imagine GiGi's either smells really delicious or like sweaty pizza.
Paul Revere's is most famous for their 20 inch Terminator pizza. Most people in Eldridge are very familiar with the place, few in the actual Quad-Cities have ventured out to try it, but it's worth the trip. Though, they have a small very 90s looking eat-in dining room. Yes, that's Ryno and Gracie adorning the walls.











I can't get Richie to eat pizza from anywhere else. So why does it stand out among the multitude of pizza joints? The sauce isn't sweet, it's very greasy and garlicy, and it's very cheap.


















The special today was a medium for 10 bucks. They also offer the greasiest, most buttery breadsticks around.






PR pizza (top) and Winners bubble bread (bottom)









But today we decided to try the bubble bread from the newest pizza place in town, Winners.
















Winners opened in March of this year. It took over the old Maid-Rite on LeClaire Rd, almost directly across from Paul Revere's. The inside is sort of retro beach themed, I guess. I mean, they have a checkerboard floor and surfboard on the wall. Anywho, the parking lot is almost always full- a good sign.


















Winners pretty much offers the same food as PR- pizza, pastas, and sandwiches. They do have some different specialties like mac n cheese pizza, which i have yet to try. Their pizza tastes similar to homemade pizza if you know what I mean. Satisfying, but nothing special. We heard the bubble bread was yummy so we tried it out.
















As you can see, it wasn't bubbly at all, so that was a bit confusing. It's really what I would call "cheesesticks", but that wouldn't be.. retro? They are basically grease and cheese on thin crust. they were pretty good but honestly, we prefer PR's breadsticks. If you're looking for a place to dine in with the fam, check out Winner's. (285-pizza) If you want to pick up a yummy no frills pie, check out Paul Revere's, (285-9000) TATER DID!