Martha’s Pick:

Double Zero Pizza
1405 S 204th St (Elkhorn)
Cost: $30
Fare: Pizza, burgers, salads
Reservations: Not needed

Greetings, Eaters and Readers!

If I can start with a morsel of honesty, I’ll tell ya: the reasons I picked Double Zero Pizzeria (DZP) could not be more uninspired. Less than 24 hours before our planned excursion, neither of us had even heard of it. As loyal readers know, we were a bit of a wayward duo the last 6-9 months. As a result of that, I didn’t have a good list of places on my radar. So when it was my turn to pick, I didn’t have a clue about where to start.

No shock here – I hopped over to the Omaha Food Lovers page on Facebook hoping to find any new-to-me place that people were raving about. Rather lazily, I landed on Double Zero. It felt like a good choice for two reasons: 1) I knew Jaclyn was almost always a pizza fiend, and 2) it felt like we were due to get outside the limits of Omaha proper. For those reasons only – off we went.

Riding together, we discussed how neither of us were feeling particularly hungry or jazzed about our impending dinner. Secretly, I worried it would be a big drive for an underwhelming experience.

When we parked in front of Double Zero, I mentioned how much this area had been built up since my last visit. DZP sits in a strip mall in the shadow of Elkhorn South High School – just off of Pacific and Highway 6 – and it’s surrounded by a line up of other options: Greenbelly, Pickleman’s, Barrel & Vine, and WestEnd.

Walking into DZP, we noticed we were the only ones dining in. We quickly chalked that up to it being 6 o’clock on a Tuesday. We sat down and started reviewing the menu.

Gouda Mac and Cheese Bites ($10)

I have never met a mac and cheese bite I didn’t enjoy – and these were no exception. These were the creamy, gouda variety and came out as you would expect them to – hot with a crispy exterior. Paired with a side of ranch, mac and cheese bites always take me right back to my favorite college bar and I was happy to see these on the menu.

Sweet and Spicy Fries ($8)

Since there was no description on the sweet and spicy fries, Jac asked the server what made them so. He explained it was a dry spice that gave them flavor. Satisfied with that answer, she put an order in. More spicy than sweet – but not too spicy – we both really liked this bowl of fries. It’s hard to pin down what exactly the flavor is, it didn’t ring any bells of familiarity. But dipped in ranch or plain Jane, we couldn’t stop grabbing them. 

Half Gammy Pat | Half Omaha Cheesesteak ($13) — Italian sausage and onion | Cheese sauce topped with shaved ribeye, onions, mushrooms, green peppers, mozzarella and parmesan

In order to best serve the blog and our readers, we knew we should try as many offerings as we could. Before ordering, however, we were both still in that “Am I hungry? And am I hungry for pizza?” funk.

When our server came to take our order, I asked if we could order half pizzas to get two experiences on one pie. I am aware doing so is commonplace, but knowing we both wanted the individual size, I was prepared for our server to say they don’t do half-n-half orders on anything smaller than a medium. We were stoked when he said yes. Now we felt better about experiencing more of the menu.

For my first half, my eyes had already settled on the Omaha Cheesesteak. I requested no mushrooms and added cream cheese. If they did add the cream cheese, it was buried under the toppings and I didn’t notice it. But the slices of Omaha Cheesesteak were so good, I didn’t even think about the cream cheese until the end.

The crust was a good blend of crispy and fluffy air-bubbles. And the pie was perfectly hot, straight from the wood-fire oven to our table. Only a few bites in, I was mentally high-fiving myself for choosing this accidental find.

My other half order – the Gammy Pat – was equally as delicious. Whoever she is, Gammy Pat can be proud to have her name on such a scrumptious pizza.

Half Crab Rangoon | Half Better Than Casey’s (BTC) Breakfast ($13) — Cream cheese base with imitation crab, sweet Thai chili, won ton strips | Cheese sauce, eggs, bacon, ham, mozzarella, cheddar

Double Zero boldly claims their breakfast pizza is better than Casey’s – which are real fightin’ words here in the Midwest. A longtime lover of Casey’s, Jac had to compare. Sadly, when she picked up her first slice, every single topping promptly slid off like it was a pizza slip and slide. Maybe that wouldn’t happen on a bigger slice, but it did on the individual size.

Beyond that, however, she must say – DZP gives Casey’s a run for their money. She liked the big slices of bacon and their cheese sauce was just right – creamy and bold. It’s hard to say if it’s truly better than Casey’s, but it’s pretty damn close.

On a completely different flavor profile – Jaclyn’s other half was the crab rangoon pizza. First bite in she said, “I think I like it?” And I had the same reaction when I gave it a taste. It seemed to take a minute for our brains to compute a Chinese appetizer on pizza. But the more bites you take, the tastier it becomes. The Thai chili sauce and won ton crispies were the icing on this slice of ‘za.

The following day, Jac texted that she really enjoyed both slices even more when she heated them up for dinner.

Final Bites

Our only complaint about Double Zero? It’s too far away from us. We’d love to see a second location pop up on the east side of town. Our server mentioned they had been open about four years, so it seems like Elkhorn and West O are doing their part to embrace the yumminess that DZP serves up.

We truly debated giving the Double Zero Pizzeria a Certified Good Bite (CGB). The food and service were great. But in each instance where we have awarded a CGB in the past, we knew it mid-meal; there was no talking ourselves into it.

Here, we were still debating it a few days later. Perhaps it’s because of the heavy topping slide or the collective, “I think I like this” crab rangoon. We can’t quite put our fingers on it. But Double Zero Pizzeria gets two enthusiastic forks up and comes about as close as you can to a CGB without quite reaching it.

That said – we definitely think heading west to Elkhorn is worth your time and, given how scrumptious our first visit was, you might even run into us on one of our return visits.

Cheers!
The Good Bite Gals

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