Phantom Gourmet: 2 Ovens In Shrewsbury

SHREWSBURY - The team behind Bertucci's has a new concept that's very different, and lot more funky. Why go with one oven, when you can have two? At 2 Ovens in Shrewsbury, the kitchen cooks double the deliciousness from their dual Italian-made wood burning beauties.

"There is no fryolator. There are no microwaves and there is no cook top," stated John Testa, Sr. Director of Operations. "We only have these two ovens and we cook everything out of those ovens. Everything tastes better out of brick oven.

This loud and lively restaurant has a fun, funky dining room, an active bar that serves draft beer out of milk bottles, and those two signature ovens that fire up absolutely everything on the menu. Each one has a very specific assignment.

Oven 1 is a red tiled beast burning at 850 degrees, and is strictly for pizza.

"It's actually a rotating oven which helps cook the pizza evenly all the way around," Testa explained.

"The fact that it spins and rotates, it's really designed to cook a perfect pizza," added General Manager Douglas Kelleher.

That tasty carousel of deliciousness fires up pizzas with some serious toppings, like the fiery Sriracha Chicken pizza, topped with celery for some added crunch, or the Garlic Mushroom pizza topped with fontina, sage and caramelized onions. Then there's the Bruschetta pizza, which is new spin on the classic Italian app.

"You have the pesto, the mozzarella, the basil, the balsamic glaze - which is my favorite part of it - drizzled on the top," described Testa. "It's just like eating a bruschetta, but instead of only having bread on the bottom you have crispy pizza dough."

The BBQ Pork Pizza explodes with flavor topped with pork, cheddar and strangely enough - apples.

"We make our homemade maple mustard barbecue sauce, marinate our pork in it and then we top it with some cheddar cheese, but then what else is better is we top it with some granny smith apples," explained Kelleher.

Then there's the truly jaw-dropping Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza.

"Bacon cheeseburger is pretty amazing," Kelleher said. "It's like eating a cheeseburger on a pizza. It has our certified Angus beef on there. It has our spicy aioli, lettuce, seasoned diced tomatoes and then we top it with some hand cut pickle chips on top. It really doesn't get better than that."

If you want an actual burger, you'll have to head over to Oven 2. This one burns at 650 degrees, using scalding hot skillets, and is where all of the non-pizza items are fired up.

"We take one of those hot skillets out of Oven 2 and we put that Angus beef right on top of that skillet and immediately you can start to smell it throughout the restaurant," Kelleher said.

"The flavor is seared in," explained Testa. "So when you take that burger out of that brick oven and you bite into that burger, the juice just comes right out of it. It's awesome."

Oven 2 is also responsible for crispy Sweet Potato Wedges served with a maple mustard dipping sauce, skillet Cornbread with Maple Butter, and Toasted Pistachios seasoned with rosemary, lemon and chili flakes.

There are also crispy oven-roasted Chicken Wings flavored with rosemary and garnished with lemons and olives, and the exotic Piri Piri Chicken which is served on a platter for easy sharing.

"We use a Piri Piri sauce to marinate our chicken which is more or less a mild chili sauce which gives the chicken a little bit of a kick," Kelleher described.

"We marinated it in the Piri Piri sauce, then we sear it in the brick oven with some more Piri Piri sauce. When it comes out again, crispy on the outside, moist and tender on the inside; it's a delicious item," stated Testa.

If you still have room, that brick oven also bakes batches of made from scratch chocolate chip cookies.

"Everybody loves a chocolate chip cookie but a chocolate chip cookie out of brick oven is even better," Kelleher said with confidence.

The desserts are too good. The pizzas are too tasty. And the prices are almost too low, at 2 Ovens.

You can find 2 Ovens at 84 Boston Turnpike in Shrewsbury, and online at 2ovens.com.

Watch Phantom Gourmet on Saturdays and Sundays at 10:30 and 11 a.m. on myTV38.

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