Pizza, biking at Papillion’s SPIN! restaurant
Have you ever fantasized about climbing Mt. Everest? Maybe swigging down a few pints at Oktoberfest? The founders of SPIN! Pizza wanted their pizza joint to be like an Italian “fantasy” – “(They) bike to the pizzeria, drink a little wine, eat a little pizza, and then (they’re) off to the next stop.”
The Kansas City-based pizza restaurant chain uses that fantasy as the backdrop for its restaurants. The second you walk into SPIN! you see the references – a wine rack offering a variety of choices and a bicyclist’s riding jersey.
SPIN! combines the best of sit down and fast food restaurants to create a fast casual dining environment. You order and pay at the counter. Once you sit down, a dine-in restaurant atmosphere takes over. Servers deliver and refill drinks, as well as deliver the food.
SPIN! opened its first restaurant in Kansas City, Missouri, in 2005. With 17 current or soon-to-open locations, the chain continues to grow beyond its spots in the Kansas City area, as well as California and Texas.
Papillion is home to the Omaha Metro’s SPIN! franchise. The Omaha suburb of about 20,000 has enjoyed the Neapolitan-style pizza since October 2014. The Omaha location has proven to be a popular restaurant. Our daughters enjoy it. Other bloggers have mentioned enjoying the menu.
SPIN! is having its official ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday (May 7) at 4 p.m., followed by an Open House.
I joined a group of other bloggers for a pre-grand opening blogger event at SPIN! recently. We sampled salads, pizzas and some gelato. I can honestly say everything I sampled was delicious. In fact, Lisa and I returned to SPIN! a couple of nights later for dinner. She agreed the salads and pizza were excellent.
SPIN!’s menu was created by the company’s James Beard-award winning chef Michael Smith. He created some excellent menu recipes. For instance, the BBQ chicken and pineapple (my favorite) includes BBQ sauce using KC-based Gates Barbecue and The Roasterie coffee brand. The combination works splendidly. The carmelized onions add to the flavor and texture, along with the sweet pineapple. Mind you, I do not care for onions, overall.
All menu items are homemade. The pizza dough is made fresh daily on site. The vegetables are stone-oven roasted. You can get the dough hand-tossed via thin crust, including whole wheat dough, or gluten-free. They also offer dairy-free cheese, for those who request it. Sauces and dressings are homemade. Soups, dressings, croutons and spreads are made at the restaurant.
Our group was able to taste three salads – Greek, Caesar and Sonoma. Each was good. A Caesar salad can go without description. The Greek featured greens, roasted artichoke, feta, roasted grape tomatoes, scallions, Kalmata olives and oregano with red wine vinaigrette dressing. I’m not an artichoke or feta guy, but I liked the salad.
I absolutely loved the Sonoma! Lisa tried this on our return visit and enjoyed it, as well. The Sonoma features greens, grapes, golden raisins, apples, goat cheese, and chopped glazed pecans with a blood orange vinaigrette. Again, I do not normally care for goat cheese, but man, it works with this salad.
We tried a variety of pizzas. My favorite was the BBQ chicken. I didn’t think apple would go well on a pizza, but guess again! The Italian sausage and apple pizza definitely ranks high with me. It has fresh mozzarella cheese and glazed pecans, as well. Yum!
We also sampled the roasted potato, pancetta and goat cheese pizza. It includes roasted red peppers, as well.
I usually like meat on my pizza, but the SPIN! roasted margherita pizza was delicious. The pizza comes with fresh mozzarella cheese, roasted grape tomatoes and basil. The tomatoes had a clean, fresh taste. The pizza was delicious.
There were a couple of other pizzas made that included mushrooms – Pollo arrosto and Chevre and Primavera. I do not care for mushrooms, Sam I am. I will not eat them in the rain. I will not eat them on a train. And, I definitely will not eat them on a pizza. However, my colleagues seemed to enjoy their samples.
Pizzas are baked on a spinning table inside an oven. The oven is kept at about 680 degrees Fahrenheit, while the temperature under the table is above 380 degrees. Pizzas baked in about 3 ½ minutes.
The goal is for a fairly quick delivery from order to table, said Bryce, the General Manager. Lunchtime turnaround is seven minutes. The dinner goal is 12 minutes, he said. If you’re on a date or just want the meal delivered a little later, tell the counter staff, and they’ll note it on the order.
We topped dinner with some gelato (OK, we all basically forced ourselves to down some yummy sweets). A couple of bloggers had blueberry gelato, and said it tasted like a blueberry muffin. I had strawberry. Everyone had good things to say about the gelato.
Overall, I had a great experience at SPIN!. I’d say I would definitely return for a meal, but I already have. So, I will say that I do plan to visit SPIN! Neapolitan Pizza a few more times. The food and service were great (both visits). The restaurant has plenty of room inside and on the patio. You can watch sports on the several large screen TVs they have.
SPIN! plans to take advantage of its name and host bike rides from the restaurant. They hope to kick off the rides every Tuesday at 6 p.m. beginning this month.
The restaurant wants to partner with its neighbors on fund-raisers, too. They are hosting a “Pups on the Patio” fund raiser for the Town and Country Humane Society this summer.
The Papillion location is easily accessible. It’s on Olsen Drive, which is near the intersection of Highway 370 and 84th Street.
For more information and locations on SPIN! Pizza, please visit www.spinpizza.com.
Now, we are giving you the chance to enter to win a $25 gift card to try Spin! Neopolitan Pizza for yourself!
Disclaimer: SPIN! Neapolitan Pizza provided us with a $50 gift card to post updates during the blog event and to write a story on our experience. They also provided a $25 gift card to give away to one of our readers. However, all opinions and views are ours.
