Fireside Pizza in Sanford, FL

Fireside Pizza is an Italian restaurant located in a Wal-Mart shopping center in Sanford. This restaurant was previously home to a RedBrick Pizza, which I wasn't a big fan of their food. I never tried this particular location when it was a RedBrick Pizza, but their Altamonte location wasn't really worth visiting again. I was a little hesitant to visit Fireside, just because it used to be a RedBrick and was a bit disappointed to see a very similar menu to what I remember RedBrick having.

We ordered the Greek Pizza, topped with ham, peppers, spinach, onions, kalamata olives, and feta. There did seem to be a definite improvement over RedBrick. I liked the crust much more over what I remember. It was thin and crispy. There were plenty of toppings, and overall had less of the frozen pizza feel that RedBrick gave off and had more of the character that a freshly made pizza should have. This wasn't the best pizza around and there are several other restaurants in Sanford that I would choose over Fireside when it comes to pizza, but at least it's an improvement over RedBrick Pizza. It wouldn't be my first choice, but I'd be willing to visit Fireside again...

RedBrick Pizza

I ate a pizza at RedBrick Pizza in Altamonte Springs, FL. RedBrick Pizza seems to be a relatively new chain that has been popping up in the Central Florida area. This was the first one to open in Uptown Altamonte, and others have since opened in Sanford and in UCF. I ate here when the restaurant first opened, but the pizza wasn't worth returning for. Someone I was with wanted to eat here though, so I agreed to give RedBrick Pizza another try.

I noticed something kind of ironic about the name. It's called RedBrick Pizza, but there are no bricks of any color in the restaurant. There are some red tiles on the wall, but no bricks.

The last time I ate here, I had a cheese pizza which was pretty bad. This time, I figured I'd try a pizza with plenty of toppings to see if they improved the pie. I ordered their Greek Pizza, which was topped with ham, peppers, onions, kalamata olives, and feta cheese. I'm not the biggest fan of ham, and I completely missed that part when reading the menu, but it really didn't taste too bad on pizza. The toppings really did improve the pizza, and without them, the pizza would have been pretty bad. The crust was nice and crispy on the outer edges of the pizza, but was soggy in the center of the pie. It didn't seem undercooked, it just seemed very damp. This wet spot caused some difficulties when pulling the slices apart. The pizza here was really overpriced too. They started at $13 for a 14 inch pizza (the largest size offered), and went up from there.

One thing I really didn't like in here was the TVs. There was a TV and remote at just about every table. I really didn't want to watch TV while I ate, so I choose one of the few TV-free tables. It may not have been a good choice though, because I got a clear view of the large, slow-moving, sloth-like people dining here as they slowly lifted (and dropped) slice after slice into their mouths with one hand, while controlling the TV remote with the other hand. It was kind of sad.

The building that RedBrick pizza occupies wasn't always here. It was once a normal strip mall before Altamonte Springs rebuilt the area into Uptown Altamonte. Before the new construction, almost exactly where RedBrick Pizza now sits, was a restaurant called Presto Pizza. Presto had the best pizza I've tasted in Florida. It was the whole New York pizza deal, with really thin large slices. Besides normal pizza, they had the more exotic varieties like stuffed pizza that you normally don't see in Florida. I haven't found another restaurant in Florida that has as good pizza as Presto had, but RedBrick Pizza definitely doesn't cut it...