The Pizza Diaries: Humble Wine Bar

One of our favorite places to get a pie is not only a pizza place, it’s a wine bar, Humble Wine Bar to be exact.  Before you get all huffy-puffy and say we can’t have a wine bar on the list, we need to tell you something. First, this is our project and we can do whatever we want. Second, what determines a “pizza place”? Places that have good pizza, right? So happy you agree with us.

The only people who love Humble as much as we do are our friends Rachael and Jim. You’ve probably seen Rachael around town or on the internet because she’s the owner and designer of one of our favorite local shops, Shore Society. We noticed through Instagram that Rachael and Jim tend to go to Humble as much as we do, so we knew we had to invite them for this stop.

They describe themselves as pizza experts and eat pizza about three times a month. They’ve also traveled to Italy where pizza is available just about everywhere. Rachael’s favorite pizza is the Sunnyside pizza from Bar Cento and Jim’s is a classic pepperoni and black olive pizza.

Humble Wine Bar
Humble is a cozy, yet modern styled wine bar in Lakewood located exactly a half mile from our home. In addition to their Neapolitan-style wood fired pizzas, they have an array of delicious small plates, meats and cheese and of course an extensive wine list.  If you don’t like wine (weirdo) then they have a great craft beer and cocktail list as well. Humble has a fantastic happy hour and is the perfect spot for a date night, girls night or really any kind of night. In the summer time, the patio is the perfect place to sip rosé and eat some pizza. We love Humble so much that we even had our wedding shower there (we HIGHLY recommend hosting an event there!).

What We Ordered
We were lucky enough that Mandi (the GM) and Rachel (the Event Coordinator) for Humble were there for our pizza excursion. We’ve gotten to know them through planning our shower and have stayed friends because they are some of the most awesome people you’ll meet, plus they really know their wine! We asked them what we should order and what the current crowd favorites were. Overall, the popular pizzas are the mushroom, and spinach and brie. But, they told us we should try the new roasted vegetable pizza on this particular trip. Anytime we come here we also order the stuffed peppadews and so do Rachael and Jim, and let this hereby serve as an official warning that you will regret it if you don’t order them as well. For this outing we collectively decided on:

• Roasted Vegetable Pizza:  roasted vegetables, spinach, mushrooms, pine nuts, rosemary, provolone, mozzarella, fontina, tomato sauce, balsamic glaze.
• Quatro Formaggio Pizza: roasted garlic, fontina, taleggio, mozzarella, parmesan.
• Spicy Soppressata Pizza: soppressata, tomato sauce, mozzarella.
• Stuffed peppadews: stuffed with goat cheese and sun dried tomatoes.

This was the exact right amount of food for four people!

Sauce
We all agreed that the red sauce was simple and not too sweet. The pizzas were light on the sauce, and it was well balanced.  Rachael said that when you think of Humble pizza, you don’t think of the sauce but that’s definitely not a bad thing. Jim said there was just enough sauce to grease the pizza.

Crust
Broad loves Humble’s crust because it’s light and thin (although she could use a side of ranch). Rachael enjoyed how the bottom of the crust was charred because of the wood fired oven. We all agreed the crust is never soggy. The girls thought the crust was soft and chewy but Jim thought the crust was a little crispy on the outside. Beard agreed and noted that his mouth got tired by the end of the meal, but maybe he just needs to toughen up. We all agreed it was full of flavor and it’s a crust you could eat by itself.

Toppings
The toppings were so fresh on all of the pizzas. The roasted veggie pizza was just phenomenal and we all agreed we would order that one again. All the pizzas had the right balance of toppings as well. Jim said the toppings seemed to be placed on the pizzas with a purpose and we agree. They were overloaded and were just what we needed.

Cheese
The cheese is not your average pizza cheese, it’s so much better. Rachael said the tallegio on the quatro was a nuttier cheese but it works so well on the pizza because it’s still so melty. The blend of cheeses and the flavors on the quatro is out of this world. The cheese on the roasted veggie seemed minimal and that’s ok because it didn’t need to stick out. We all agreed the cheese was perfectly balance on all of the pizzas.

Overall Experience
The vibe in Humble is very low key and unpretentious. Beard loves that it has a very neighborhood feel and a super knowledgeable staff. Rachael says she doesn’t even think of Humble as a wine bar because it’s so accessible. Jim says the experience at Humble is always great and the vibe is subdued and cozy. Jim and Rachael often get takeout from there and it’s super easy.

Next Day Deliciousness
We’ve both had Humble pizza the next day and agree that it’s great. Rachael and Jim have even reheated the spinach and brie with an egg on it (that’s a pro tip right there). For these specific pizzas, Rachael and Jim said they reheated excellent and the crust maintained the crispiness and the flavor was still there. We completely agree and had the same experience when we reheated ours!

Overal Rating
4.5/5 Peppadews. I think you can tell we really love the place. We love the cozy, comfy vibe of Humble. A lot of wine bars are stuffy and fancy and not that inviting. If we have a chance for a date night we often go here instead of checking out a new place because we just feel so comfortable here. The only suggestions we have are maybe they can add some different entree options? For reals though, don’t even have to do that. We were really stretching to think of what they could do differently but this place is near perfect. As with any awesome restaurant, there can be the occasional short wait (you know how we feel about waiting for food), but we can always grab a glass of wine at the bar so it’s never a hassle.

SaveSave

SaveSaveSaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave