I hate salads. But this Kansas City pizza restaurant makes one I love
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Let’s Dish, Kansas City
Dig in: Our series showcases some of our favorite restaurant meals.
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Editor’s note: Welcome back to our series Let’s Dish, Kansas City, showcasing some of our favorite restaurant meals.
I hate salad.
You read that correctly.
When a pile of lettuce or arugula or, God forbid, kale lands on my plate, I politely decline. I can’t stand the combination of slightly bitter greens and the losing battle of constructing a perfect bite on my fork. While I will chow down on coleslaw or a fruit salad, their lettuce counterparts are not for me.
But there’s one Kansas City salad that even a greens curmudgeon like me will eat: the spinach and goat cheese salad at Spin! Pizza.
I was coerced into ordering it years ago when I got the popular Mini Mia deal (7-inch pizza plus soup or salad for $12.25). I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked … the salad.
Two toppings are the star of the show for me: the creamy goat cheese crumbles and the crunchy, slightly sweet roasted pecans. Add in the vinaigrette, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and bacon bits and you have a delightfully fresh accompaniment to your pizza.
Spin! Pizza, based in Kansas City, has 15 locations in Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and Texas. For almost 20 years, the restaurant has served dishes developed by original partner Michael Smith of Extra Virgin, including my favorite salad and the pizza on the side. “Pizzas are the most popular item, but salads are definitely next,” said Sara Carhart, Spin’s chief operating officer.
I chose the caramelized onion and Italian sausage pizza to accompany the greens. The onions are cooked in-house, and the sausage is made in Kansas City’s Northeast area, at Scimeca’s Famous Sausage Co., Carhart said. I love the slight spice from the sausage and the light, but just right, amount of cheese.
At Spin, you order and pay at a counter when you arrive, but a server brings you your drinks and food. Just off the Plaza, the location at 4950 Main St. has humorously Photoshopped photos on the wall — a signpost to Rome, Siena and Spin — and a view of the fiery stone pizza oven. While the restaurant was filled with workers on their lunch break when I went, Carhart said, “Our main demographic are, like, women with families.”
Back when I avoided gluten, I found that the restaurant offers delicious gluten-free crusts, alongside vegan and vegetarian options.
Finish off your meal with a gelato from Michigan-based Palazzolo’s Artisan Dairy. This time, I tasted the limoncello and blueberry butter cookie flavors before choosing peanut butter cup. After all, there must be a balance in life: ice cream after your salad.
This story was originally published May 28, 2024 at 5:30 AM.
