Cirillo’s Pizzeria

We are visiting family and were on our own for dinner. Not much to choose from in Fitzgerald on. Weeknight besides Mickey D’s, the King, etc. not expecting a whole lot we tried this place at least it was local and family owned… WOW… what a surprise ! This was some of the best pizza We’ve ever had. Better than anything in Athens or Atlanta and very favorably comparable to Chicago (non deep dish) or authentic pizza found in family places in the N.E. The crust was very thin, light, crunchy on the edges while still slightly chewy. Ingredients tasted very fresh especially the sauce which the brightness of fresh tomato flavor so it did not overpower the other flavor’s. There was an acceptable amount of real cheese (ok, I would have preferred a bit more but that’s me) and the other toppings (we had the butcher’-so they were all meats) were very generous. The Italian sausage was very, very good. Wonderful authentic flavor. This was not a good. But a GREAT pizza. It’s difficult to find truly good pizza anywhere in the SE but there’s a real gem here in historic Fitzgerald Georgia!

I am craving the «lasagna» pizza. Sounds like a strange combo, but it as amazing. I am also a fan of the thin crust style pizza. I had it there about two months ago and I’m headed back to Fitzgerald for work and am looking forward to going there again.

My best friend, her two kids (6 and 3) and I discovered this place next to the Grand movie theatre the other night. It was full of families, young couples and had a very laid back atmosphere. It appears to be a restored drugstore with an old piano in the front corner, restored wood floors and painted tin ceiling panels. You place your order at the back bar and then you get a number with someone bringing your food. You’re responsible for getting your own drinks, silverware but they do bus the tables. Pretty neat system and it appears to work. We didn’t try the pizza but the General Lee sandwhich was great (grilled chicken, bacon, ranch, lettuce, tomato on a big, fresh hoagie). The next time I go, I’ll either get it as a wrap or try the Lamb Gyros with fresh tsastiki (spelling?) sauce. I’ll definitely go back the next time I come to town to paint pottery!

The wife and I found this place on a trip to Fitzgerald through Unilocal.It’s in a very charming part of town and we were so impressed with the vibe on a Thursday night. There was live music and the place was bustling with activity. It’s family friendly while at the same time being a place you can go with friends. The people are friendly even if the setup of the restaurant (how you order, how you get drinks, food, etc) is a little strange.
The pizza isn’t that impressive. Ours was incredibly thin. I’m sure it’s the style, but at the end of the night, I’d paid $ 20 for a meal that left me hungry.
I would give this place a 3 if it was in Atlanta. But it’s a cool place in the middle of God’s country. There should be more places like it in these charming downtown areas. So, we’ll continue to support it.

Run by a charming husband and wife team Cirillo’s is an authentic pizza parlor transplanted to the deep south. I think the definition of a pizza place is the nicknames it gives to the slices or pies, the ‘Tony’, ‘Sal’ or ‘Vito’ being the most familiar to me. At Cirillo’s they have one pie that says it all, the ‘Wild Chicken Pizza’. Fitzgerald is known for the wild Burmese chickens that inhabit the town. I have heard three different stories about how the chickens came to inhabit this little gem of a town but I digress. The pizza at Cirillo’s is somewhere between a New York style pizza, overloaded with cheese and toppings, and a Chicago style pizza because it’s all around a bit thicker. We ordered a large Wild chicken pizza and were faced with the ‘P’ food dilemma. Pizza, popcorn, peanuts, pretzels, are foods that are very hard to leave unfinished. The large pizza at Cirillo’s are huge and like other P foods hard to leave unfinished. The one critique I would make is that our pie seemed to be overloaded with cheese. I like cheese but too often I think it can be confused for the most important part of the pizza and things like tomato sauce and mid level ingredients like chicken and mushrooms become lost. Its like many things in life, a qualitative not quantitative issue.
Cirillo’s serves beer and wine, the beer selection is confusing, they have a huge row of diverse beer bottles on top of a large wooden shelf behind the counter but they only serve crap US draft like bud light and miller, yet they do have some of the aforementioned diverse bottled beer. I ended up with a couple Yuengling Black and Tans, and all in all it turned out to be a fine meal.
We talked with the owners for sometime afterword and were invited back on the coming Saturday which happened to be the day of Fitzgerald’s annual Wild Chicken Festival. We did stop in, had a couple ‘top shelf’ coffees (apparently there is a reserve selection available if you ask for it) which happened to be the finest cups of brew we had in out entire week of travel in the great Peach state.