ARTSETC.
Snazzy names, decor not enough to impress most ‘zone lovers
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by Ben Classon
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Located on West Gilman Street just off State Street, D.P. Dough, with their full menu of creative calzones for late night snackers, offers students an alternative to pizza and fast food restaurants. D.P. stands for Dan and Penny, the first names of the mother-son combination who established their first calzone eatery in Amherst, Mass., in 1987. Twenty years later, the newest incarnation of D.P. Dough now calls the city of Madison its home.
At least the TVs are big
D.P. Dough's location leaves a lot to be desired for first time visitors. Though it's no more than 50 feet from State Street, a customer new to the D.P. Dough experience might have a rough time finding the eatery coming from campus. Once you make it inside the restaurant, you'll be greeted by a smiling employee ready to take your order at any time. Unless you know exactly what you want, though, this may take several minutes. This lengthy decision making process should come as no surprise, as D.P. Dough offers more than 50 different "zones" ranging from standard cheese all the way to "A'wakin N' Bacon." After selecting your calzone and paying the steep (when compared to other late night options) $6.50 and another $1.50 for a soda, you can enjoy a nice break in front of not one, but two high-definition televisions which, as far as I can tell, are always tuned to ESPN. Unfortunately, the seating is somewhat limited, and the general space usage is poor. Then again, the layout does seem to be designed for the drunken bar time crowd, and it offers plenty of room for people to stand and wait for their 'zones.
What's in a calzone? Let's not ask
After nearly five minutes of deliberation, I decided to get the "Strike Zone," which contains eggplant, spinach and garlic, along with ricotta and mozzarella cheese. Ten to 20 minutes later — a wait time which applies even if you are one of only three people in the restaurant, which has been the case every time I've visited — and my 'zone was hand-delivered to me by one of the employees. In the box, I found the 'zone and a small cup of marinara sauce. First, I suggest ignoring the sauce because the two times I have braved it, I had to apologize profusely to my taste buds for putting something so awful in my mouth. My first bite was a lot of dough and not a lot of filling, but once I made it to the center, I was almost more disappointed than I was with my first bite. The cheese was warm and gooey for the first three minutes of my calzone experience, but by the time I reached the second half of my 'zone, the cheese started to congeal and had become slightly unsavory. In addition, the ingredients they used seemed to have come out of a middle school cafeteria and in no way resembled what a calzone should contain. The taste of garlic was almost nonexistent, while the scarcity of the eggplant made me wonder if they had more than one of the vegetables to use for the entire night. Likewise, the spinach was the type you find in pre-bagged salads in your local grocery store, and it almost completely ruined the experience for me.
They like me, they really like me
The employees at D.P. Dough, however, left little to be desired from the staff of a new restaurant. Between hand delivering the calzones and asking if we had enjoyed everything as we left, I felt as though they genuinely cared about their customers. After acknowledging that everything was satisfactory, I was told, in what came off as slight desperation, that I should continue bringing my business to D.P. Dough, and not the slightly newer Lovshack, which just opened on State Street. Yet, with the drunken hordes as their main source of income, D.P. Dough's future is yet to be seen.
Anonymous (November 8, 2007 @ 9:27am):
of course it takes a long time - do you walk into domino's for carry-out without calling ahead and expect it to be ready right away?
Anonymous (November 8, 2007 @ 10:48am):
I've been tempted to drive to the out of town Casa B's just for a decent calzone. But these will suffice.
Anonymous (November 8, 2007 @ 1:20pm):
"a customer...might have a rough time finding the eatery coming from campus."
Well, thanks for not giving us the address anywhere in the article. We'll just have to wander around Gilman and look around when we get 50 away from State... OR, you could give us the address.
Anonymous (November 8, 2007 @ 1:36pm):
Loveshack slacked on putting money into the seating area but their 'zones and dough are much better.
Anonymous (November 8, 2007 @ 9:35pm):
Loveshack is also over priced compared to other late night drunk food and their menu is a hazard for drunks. It was also super duper to see those microwaves in action. Oh yea and most new establishments like feedback right? Not Loveshack.They could have cared less.
kyle brodsky (November 13, 2007 @ 6:13pm):
Are u kidding? love shack gave me free t shirts, i told them to get calzone cards sou can eat 5 and eat one free and the owner has been nothing but nice and thankful of comments... LOVE SHACK IS AMAZING! they are soooo much better! I suggest Steak bomb or Rocky mountain high, with sweet dough.... the dough is sooo much better then the somewhat decent dp dough... HOwever props on dp dough with ur wings... there dank
Anonymous (December 7, 2007 @ 1:48pm):
those loveshack t-shirts suck like their calzones... what are you homeless
Anonymous (December 22, 2007 @ 9:55pm):
Lovshack kicks it. They just do their thing. Killer food, witty concept. Oh, and Lovshack's expression is universal.
Anonymous (April 27, 2008 @ 3:28pm):
names of sweet doughs
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