There was supposed to be a festival this past weekend in Dayton, KY. Being the festival afficionados that we are, my wife and I could hardly pass up what would have been our first festival of the season this year. But, fate conspired against us and the “festival” turned out to be dozens of empty booths and a few people milling about. So, disappointed and hungry we needed to find something to ease the festival-food cravings. Driving back towards the highway from Dayton we spotted a small pizza joint that seemed to fit the bill. Heeding the siren’s call of non-chain pizza, we quickly parked the car and headed inside.

The first thing that caught my attention was a sign indicating that the entire restaurant was smoke-free. Some tiny pizza place in Kentucky is hardly the type of place you’d expect to find smoke-free dining, but those of you who appreciate such things take note. Menu items are fairly standard as far as midwest pizza joints go, though with perhaps a larger selection of hoagies than is typical. In addition to pizzas and hoagies, you’ll find a few pasta dishes and the requisite deep-fried appetizers.

We opted to go the pizza route, and ordered a medium with pepperoni, ham, green peppers, onions, and goetta. (Yes! Goetta!) I’ve had goetta on a pizza before but always found it to be too mushy to make a good pizza topping. In this case, the goetta was fried up crispy before being loaded onto the pizza. Delicious! The crust is of the “pan” variety that is familiar to pizza-lovers in the midwest. Bearing no relation to the deep dish pizzas of Chicago, this is a thick, doughy crust that requires some chewing before swallowing. The sauce was typical, mild pizza sauce — better than frozen, but nothing to write home about. Overall I found the pizza to be slightly above average. Total damage with two drinks was about $15. I wouldn’t drive too far out of my way to eat there, but if you ever find yourself in the Dayton/Bellevue/Newport Kentucky area craving pizza you could certainly do worse.

Pasquale’s Pizza Carry Out

343 Fairfield Ave
Bellevue, KY 41073-1009
859.261.2233