Dewey’s Pizza is all about good food, music
By Cynthia Schuster-Eakin
Insights
Published Oct. 15, 2008

Great food, like good music, is an art.

That is the theory behind Dewey’s Pizza, a newcomer to Cleveland’s West Side.

Dewey’s, located at 18516 Detroit Avenue in Lakewood at the Rocky River border, is a Cincinnati-based company founded by entrepreneur Andrew DeWitt in 1998.

A graduate of Denison University in Columbus, DeWitt attended the Guitar Institute of Technology after college with the intent of pursuing a career in the music industry. He moved to Seattle because it was a great music town at the time, but found a job at a local pizza place to make ends meet. DeWitt said he worked side by side with many artistic people, having fun and listening to rock and roll music. Eventually, he decided to open his own place. There were many fine neighborhood restaurants in Seattle that offered inspiration. He and his girlfriend, now his wife, decided to move back to his hometown of Cincinnati to open the original Dewey’s Pizza.

DeWitt said his vision for Dewey’s was to “create a cool neighborhood spot with great beers on tap, great pizza and salads, and genuine people making the food and providing authentic hospitality.” Of course, music was mandatory.

You can create your own pizza at Dewey’s, starting with freshly made, hand-tossed pizza dough and adding your choice of red sauce and mozzarella cheese, or olive oil and garlic-based white sauce with mozzarella and fontina. More than 40 different items are available as toppings, including Amish chicken, black bean and corn salsa, smoked cheddar cheese, whole roasted garlic and roasted red peppers. Pie sizes are 11 inches, 13 inches or 17-inch rounds.

Dewey’s also offers a number of specialty pizzas from which to choose. The Green Lantern is topped with red sauce, light mozzarella, minced garlic, mushrooms, goat cheese, artichokes and pesto. The wild mushroom pizza combines olive oil and garlic, mozzarella and fontina cheeses, portabella, oyster and shiitake mushrooms, capers and roasted red peppers. Diners who cannot quite agree on a single specialty pizza can request a half and half pizza.

Calzones are filled with mozzarella and ricotta cheese and a selection  of up to three ingredients.

Salads include a house salad with pine nuts, dried cranberries and goat cheese, Caesar salad, Greek salad and candied walnut and grape salad with Dewey’s citrus basil vinaigrette.

The restaurant also offers seasonal specialties. This month’s featured pizza is rosemary chicken, with caramelized onions, asiago cheese, roasted garlic and topped with fresh chopped tomatoes after baking. The fall harvest salad is field greens tossed with figs, toasted pumpkin seeds, boursin cheese and applewood smoked bacon, tossed with apple cider and honey vinaigrette.

Dewey’s Pizza is open for lunch and dinner. Hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Sunday. Major credit cards are honored. The restaurant is wheelchair accessible.

On the Web:

• Dewey's Pizza