Much more than just great ice cream
soups - salads - meatballs - pasta - burgers - hoagies
double deckers - stromboli - calzones and of course-pizza!
Now Serving Beer!
Happy hour & food specials 5pm-9pm
$1.50-$2.00 domestic beers
open 5pm-1am daily
Voted one of the best Pizzas in Cincinnati by Cincinnati Magazine
Reviews
Save room for pizza.
It was late last Summer at MainStrasse, the late night hunger kicked in around 2 am. The festival food vendors were by now intoxicated and heading towards carnie drunk. Nothing left there. I wouldn’t eat fast “food” if it was free so I figured I was basically screwed. Then, I passed by Fatty Patty’s. I saw people chowing down on steaming hot pizza, outside the ice cream joint. It looked too good to be true.
I ordered a slice from the walk-up window just after 2 am. From the first bite the pizza was unbelievable. Maybe it was the still buzzing festival vibe or the cold night air against hot food or maybe just the beer, but I remember it was so good it was print worthy. Hence our first article (www.eastsidevibe.com/FattyPattysAugust.html).
I decided to dig deeper into Fatty’s and find out how and why this quick scoop & cone joint featured so much goodness hidden in the kitchen.
I sat out on the sidewalk on a bright afternoon with owners Bob and Mark. Questioning them until dark on the details of Fatty Patty’s. I scribbled notes that read “no additives ever, no preservatives nothing artificial” it seemed as if I was talking to a couple of veteran restaurateurs. Neither owner has any restaurant work experience whatsoever. They do have some restaurant experience I guess.... eating in them, and then feeling sick. Bob explained his idea, “I eat out all the time and so much stuff leaves me feeling ill, It’s all the additives and preservatives... We wanted to open a place that had food that we would eat”.
Simple concept in hand, Bob and Mark settled on the Main St. MainStrasse location. Creativity and some decor sourcing from ebay put together Fatty Patty’s fresh look. Their cool comic book theme is unique. The menu may not look unique but it certainly tastes unique.
Six burgers, six hoagies, pastas (and bread bowls, fresh baked bread bowls people, oh and wonderful white lasagna that sells out fast), soups, salads and pizza. Oh yeah, and lots of ice cream.
The pizza (for one) is divine. Obviously scratch made dough that’s buttery, billowy and airy inside, with a slight char and snap outside, a perfect chew. Toppings are the vine ripened fresh produce variety when in season (from a Covington garden). 100% pure cheeses and the savory sauce they perfected finish it off. My personal fave is the soul satisfying Pizza Bianco I wrote about the first time.
From the moment we sat down (being such fine people as they are) a pile of bread sticks hit the table. Fat dough sticks of that fantastic pizza dough cooked perfect, no two the same. I didn’t even use the pizza sauce twice. It took away from my discovery of what this delightful dough is all about. “How the hell did you two come up with this crazy good crust?” I asked. “We spent weeks just mixing and baking, over and over until we got it the way we liked it. Plus, we have an awesome Blodgett variable temperature oven” They each explained. “Same with the sauce, we made different sauces for a week... I was so sick of sauce that week... I couldn’t even look at it” Bob said jokingly. Customers aren’t sick of it. No sir.
The burgers were just as taxing to perfect. “It took us the longest to get them (burger patties) where we wanted them... it was six months before we finally had a meat blend we think is perfect”.
Back to the pizza, “The dough has something special about it, something unique” I said, still probing for the secret. “We call it pizza crack.” Bob said again jokingly. “It’s just a little extra fresh garlic butter we add in the dough, it’s really simple, but people tell us all the time it’s addicting”. “Those people are right” I thought as I listened and chewed slowly and deliberately, now straining to isolate and identify the pizza crack flavor.
Throughout our sidewalk meeting I observed the relationship these guys have with their customers (and passing street traffic), people actually stop by just to say hi here. I realized one secret to the success of Fatty Patty’s is the owners themselves. Both Bob and Mark are honest-to-good, down-to-earth people. Folks who wanted to open a place they thought was cool, a place that served food they knew was wholesome, a place for locals to hang out and munch on something worth eating. No hype, no gimmicks, no bullshit. It’s casual, cool, understated and damn sure under-rated. They like it that way too (well maybe not the under-rated part).
They’re concerned that people still may only think of Fatty’s as an ice cream shop. They want folks to be aware of the treats that come out of the oven as well. “People still act totally surprised when they see we have a real menu.” Bob said (seriously this time). “We want them to realize we serve good food here too.” So do I Bob, so do I.
So many so called expert pizza makers set up every year, and some have success. Most are just ok, others suck. Fatty Patty’s have never claimed to be expert at all. Yet their pizza puts most any other in the area to shame. That makes the pizza “veterans” look silly. Granted, NKY has a few good pizza joints, I liked Newport Pizza Co. the best, until I tried Fatty’s elegant pies (no offense, NPC has got a good thing going).
Bob & Mark created an award winning recipe off the bat. These guys still do nearly all the cooking. They hired a night cook and they now are working a mere 12 hours a day instead of all night and day. They still have fun at work too. They like what they do. I like what they do. Anyone who appreciates quality food will like it too. Pizza aficionados will flat out love it. Stop by for an ice cream, but save room for pizza.
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I’ve stated before one of the best pizzas I’ve found is at Latitudes Cafe (Anderson). The rockin’ tapas/fusion restaurant is not the first place to look for good pizza, neither is an ice cream parlor. Yet an ice cream parlor is exactly where I found another over the top good pizza. Fatty Patty’s is located on Main St. in Covington. There is competition for food dollars up, down, over and all around this little eatery. There is even Lucy Blue Pizza across the street. Most everyone serves alcohol as well. Fatty Patty’s pizza takes the top spot over all (even Newport Pizza which is awesome) of NKY I’ve seen so far. Why? The chew, the buttery puffed crust, the obviously hand tossed dough is a rare pizza perfection find.
I like to try new pizzas and I always order just a cheese. I want to taste the crust & cheese quality without a pile of toppings in the way. Since Fatty Patty’s offers a signature pizza with a couple cheeses and a unique sauce I went for that. The Pizza Bianco (10” $12) is a simple pie with ricotta, mozzarella and a chopped garlic white sauce. It featured a perfect chew, great cheeses and a subtle but significant sauce. All in all it was perfect. The crust can stand up to any, and will best most any in competition I’m certain.
I also sampled a scoop of Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream. It was chock full of cheesecake chunks and the strawberry mixed in tasted much like fresh to me.
After pizza and dessert I got the feeling everything on this odd menu might be really good too. There are several items that truly caught my eye, but I was too stuffed to try. Meatballs $4 “served with sweet bbq or signature pizza sauce (and the meatball hoagie with slaw $8.50), Patty’s Burger $7 “Beef and sweet Italian sausage served the way you like it”, Lasagne $8.50 and Breaded Parmesan Chicken $7.75 all sound worthy of a closer look.
There is also salads, appetizers, pasta bread bowls, sandwiches, double deckers, Carnival cuisine (with a $2 slaw dog!), hoagies, chili & soups. Oh yeah, ice cream too.
Fatty Patty’s is open late and features sidewalk seating and a walk up window.
It looks like your quintessential ice cream joint. There is more than one surprise when you see the menu though. This place makes me wonder if there are any pizza parlors out there with kick ass Cajun crawfish... or truly fine fried rice? After this surprise I’ll be looking for spicy buffalo wings at coffee shops, asking deli owners if they make any meatloaf and ordering burgers at Chinese places.
Fatty Patty’s proves many things. One, you can open amidst much competition and do fine. Two, you don’t need an expensive store to attract customers. Three, you can sell quality restaurant food at decent prices out of an ice cream parlor. Four, your menu doesn’t have to fit your theme. Fact is, anything goes that’s good. It still seems so unexpected. Walking by you would never think this place had anything other than sweet treats. Think again.
Awesome