Rockin' Tomato lives up to it's name

I've been hitting Rockin' Tomato since 2005 and it's quality has been filled with highs and lows.  I believe these fluctuations over the years have been the result of ownership changes.  I'm happy to report the current crew has redeemed themselves after many years and I'm happy about that.  Here's a little history of the Rockin' Tomato Pizza located next to the Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek.

When Steph and I were first married we started a tradition of going to the Rockin' Tomato every Tuesday.  We'd get the Carnivore and a couple Cokes, read the Austin Chronicle and talk about our day.  It was something to look forward to and we enjoyed every minute of it.  Over time the waitress, a typical Austinite with tattoo sleeves and a warm smile, didn't even come over to take our order.  She would just yell, "HI!" and bring our drinks. We knew the pizza would be out shortly.  It was our version of Cheers and we liked it.  The Carnivore is your standard, throw every meat on it, pie with a slightly spicy sauce and just enough cheese.  Steph would say it didn't have quite enough cheese but she'd probably say that while drowning in a sea of cheese so take that with a grain of salt.  I can't say how long we held this weekly pizza court but it was probably over a year.  Then everything changed.  The Rockin' Tomato switched owners and all of the sudden our little girl wasn't there to greet us, we had to order up front at the counter and the ingredients were sourced from a different distributor.  Devastation.  We tried it a few times after the change but it just wasn't the same.  The bacon was in these big chunks, the sausage just wasn't good and overall the pie was just too salty.  We didn't go back for years.

Fast forward to today.  I wanted pizza but didn't want to go to our normal hangout, Conan's, so Steph suggested we see if Rockin' Tomato had changed since last we visited.  I longed for the old days, the happy chatter, the good times we'd had at Rockin' Tomato so I jumped at the opportunity.  I'm happy to say they have made some changes and we enjoyed our experience.  You still order at the front, and that's OK, but the big change is the pizza is much better now.  They've either gone back to the old toppings vendor or gotten another one but whatever happened the toppings are back to being a nice blend of meaty, spicy, not too salty, excellence.  I was so happy that I raised my lighter high and lit it as the live band did a nice cover of Journey's Faithfully.  And at that point I knew I was home again after all those years of searching for a new pizza place.

Rockin' Tomato I'm forever yours again.  Don't screw it up this time.