Various parts of the country and world have unique cuisines.
The South Shore of Massachusetts does, too. While parts of Southeastern Massachusetts are known for their cranberry production, another food unique to the region stands out: South Shore bar pizza.
South Shore bar pizzas are 10-inch pizzas cooked in small steel pans that generally use cheddar cheese or a mix of cheddar and mozzarella.
Although it’s hard to find one outside of Southeastern Massachusetts, they are highly popular in this region.
While customers can get the traditional pizza toppings on South Shore bar pizza, they can also get some unique ones.
Here is a look at five of the most distinctive South Shore bar pizzas worth trying.
1. Chicken & Waffle
Yes, chicken and waffle pizza exists.
You can get it at Venus Cafe in Whitman, Massachusetts.
The pizza doesn’t have tomato sauce on it. However, it’s topped with pieces of fried chicken and pieces of waffle. It also comes topped with maple syrup and those who want even more syrup can get containers of it to fit their needs.
And if you want to upgrade what is already an incredible pizza, ask for it with bacon as well.
Venus probably has one of the strongest selections of unique toppings on the South Shore, but this is among the most unusual pizzas they offer.
2. Beans
One of the big differences between the standard New York-style pizza that most places in Massachusetts offer and South Shore bar pizza is that you’re probably never going to find a place that puts beans on a New York-style pizza.
However, you can find many South Shore bar pizza places that put beans on pizza, including Lynwood Cafe in Randolph.
Lynwood offers a pizza known as the bean special. It comes with Boston baked beans, onion, and salami. While I prefer the baked bean pizza since I don’t like onion, it has a mix of sweet and savory that appeals to many people.
And yes, there is no tomato sauce on this pizza, either.
If you really want to irk the pizza purists, however, here’s another idea: order a cheese pizza well done, buy a pack of Cheeto’s from behind the bar, crush the Cheeto’s up, open the bag, and then dump them onto the pizza. Their Cheeto’s pizza is quite good, regardless of what the critics who have never tried it say.
3. Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese
If you want to mix together two so-called comfort foods, here is your chance.
Buffalo mac & cheese is among the most filling bar pizzas you’ll come across. A few different places have it, including the original Cape Cod Cafe in Brockton.
This is another pizza that doesn’t come with tomato sauce. Instead, it comes with mac & cheese, bread crumbs, and fried buffalo chicken pieces.
It’s one of the best pizzas out there and if you try it, odds are you’ll be bringing some home and eating it the next day.
Also, this is a recommendation to try the Brockton location — which is better than the satellite locations.
4. Pulled Pork
If you like pulled pork, you’ll like it on pizza.
And one of the places to get it on the South Shore is The Riviera Cafe in downtown Bridgewater.
It’s a South Shore bar pizza topped with pulled pork and barbecue sauce. What’s not to like here?
One word of caution with The Riv: the service can be very slow, but it does have an extensive beer list.
5. Drunken Meatball
Meatball is a pretty good pizza topping, but Coop’s Bar & Grille in Quincy puts a unique twist on it.
As a conservative, I don’t care for the name of this pizza, but it’s worth trying. It’s a cheese pizza topped with meatballs doused in buffalo sauce.
The drunken meatballs are a popular appetizer at Coop’s, so the establishment also put them on their pizzas — and they’re a hit.
So while Coop’s isn’t one of the first places that come to mind when thinking about South Shore bar pizza, this is an underrated selection.
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