Suzy Applebaum introduced me to the Green Mill; we were both employed at KSTP in Minneapolis- St. Paul, and I had asked her to go to lunch. She suggested the Green Mill. At the time, it was a small bar on Hamline Avenue in St. Paul that specialized in deep dish pizza. It had opened in the 30s as a soda fountain at the same location.
I had a monster crush on Suzy, who hailed from a local grocery store dynasty family; if I knew then I was going to spend the rest of my life obsessed with food, well, I might have wised up and pursued Suzy with vigor, but I knew I was outclassed from the get-go.
The legend of the local bar with great pizza grew, and today, there are 27 locations across the Midwest, serving a full menu in addition to their pizza.
There was one other significant event in my life that took place at a Green Mill, the rehearsal dinner for my wedding. It was at the Uptown location on South Hennepin in Minneapolis, and no, it wasn’t my selfish love of pizza that made that event happen there, but was rather my mother’s choice. My mother loved to go with me to places that were “on the wrong side of the tracks”, and it was “our thing” to explore someplace new every time she came to the Twin Cities when I was living there.
As with most successful pizzerias, Green Mill has launched a frozen pizza line, and they are being made and distributed by a Minnesota pizza manufacturer, Bernatellos. Minnesota somehow became the frozen pizza capital of the US, with a gaggle of brands being made across the state: Jeno’s, Totino’s, Roma, Red Baron, Freschetta, Tony’s, Giovannis, Kettle River….I’m sure I’m forgetting many, but you get the idea.
I purchased the “Thin and Crispy” style with three meats, sausage, pepperoni and bacon. It’s a 15 ounce affair and was priced at 2 / $11 or .73 per ounce, and that’s steep for a frozen pie.
The three pix below represent the box, note the “authentic restaurant-style flavors” (boy, that’s as vague as can be, isn’t it?); the unbaked pie is kind of a misrepresentation, I pushed all the included pepperoni to one side of the pie. The last picture represents the baked pie, 10 minutes at 425.
The picture of the cooked pizza kind of tells the whole story, when you note the “glistening” on the surface. This is a fairly greasy pizza, and the ‘cupping’ and slight char on the pepperoni indicates a high fat content (which would explain some of the oil). The pork sausage is realtively unseasoned. It’s a crispy crust, pleasant enough, nice herb treatment, including fennel. Tomato sauce on the sweet side.
The ingredients list doesn’t include a whole lot of preservatives, these are pretty pure ingredients. The flavor is simply not to my taste, but it might be perfect for you!
Frozen Pizza Review