In a world of sophisticated tastes, Pizza on Dubuque abides.

The foundation of Pizza on Dubuque’s slices is a crispy, crunchy, rustic crust made with part white and part local organic wheat flour. Spots of char on the bottom compliments the crust’s wheaty flavor.

A slice of homemade Italian sausage, green bell pepper, and red onions is about as perfect as it gets. Good spicy sausage made with locally acquired ground pork, flavored with parsley, fennel, cayenne, salt and pepper. Crunchy peppers and red onion. A light hand on the sauce lets this simple trio of toppings stand out.

In contrast the pepperoni and sausage pizza has a generous amount of P.O.D.’s made-from-scratch tomato pizza sauce, but suffers not from overabundance. The ratio of sausage to pepperoni clearly nods towards the latter. Either more sausage or larger chunks would have made a better balance.

The veggie combo is loaded down with tomatoes, green peppers, black olives, and mushrooms. In-season locally grown heirloom tomatoes burst with fresh, vibrant flavor. A true artisan pizza. It's like a Farmers' Market in my mouth, but without all the shitty arts and crafts junk to wallow through.