Craft Beer-Focused Pizza Joints Get Brewing, Baking

In the past week, critics and bloggers turned their focus on two craft beer-centric pizza joints that opened at the end of 2012: Stanley's Farmhouse Pizza, neighbor to the Jester King brewery, and Pinthouse Pizza on Burnet Road, which boasts Odell Brewing Company veteran Joe Mohrfeld as brewmaster.

Open only on Saturdays so far, Stanley's started off with a solid pedigree: Bola Pizza owner Chris Bowers consulted on the ovens and pies. At the Austin Food Journal, Bowers, perhaps unsurprisingly, gives Stanley's his official blessing this week: "this is my favorite pizza in Austin." Over at I Eat Fancy, blogger-cartoonist Amber Demure calls Stanley's the "perfect place" to take high-energy kids who can run around the open-air restaurant. She reports ambivalence about the thin crust on her "Penelope" pizza and wanted more "fresh, colorful tomatoes," but loved the peppery arugula.

Pinthouse Pizza opened in October 2012, serving pies and house-brewed beer in a sprawling, picnic-bench packed building on Burnet Road. While the beers have been soundly endorsed by a number of local hop-heads, the pizza seems to be more of a struggle. The Austin Chronicle's Rachel Feit "won't say it's the best pizza in town," but it's "good," especially "paired with a pint of homebrew." The "Armadillo" pie's flavors weren't "big" enough, but she was surprised by the macaroni-and-cheese pizza: "startlingly tasty." Ultimately, though, she says to "Go for the beer; food is optional."

· Jester King & Stanley's Farmhouse Pizza [I Eat Fancy]
· I'm At The Bar: Stanley's Farmhouse Pizza [Austin Food Journal]
· Review: Pinthouse Pizza [Austin Chronicle]
· All Pizza Coverage on Eater Austin [-EATX-]

[Photo: Stanley's/Facebook]