Sydney and I had the most enjoyable and delicious visit to Six Hundred Downtown in Bellefontaine, OH. Six Hundred Downtown is the home of the “World Famous Brick Oven Pizza.” So what’s with their name? Six hundred degrees F is the starting point for baking their delicious pizzas. This is the temperature where perfection is baked! They bake their pizzas at nearly six hundred degrees and this creates the perfectly baked pizza!
At Six Hundred Downtown, they feel making pizzas is an art and they strive to create the best pizza possible. This starts with the fact that their pizzas are hand spun the old fashioned way. They also bake them in an old fashioned brick oven.
Brittany Saxton is the owner of Six Hundred Downtown. She has been in the pizza industry her entire life. Brittany has owned the restaurant for almost two years. She has also completely refurbished this neat old building into an amazing piece of artwork. The tin ceilings are original to the building and set the tone for the most beautiful dining experience. The architecture of this building is truly beautiful!
They have a really neat bar area that, along with beer, also has wine on tap. Currently, they have one red and one white wine on tap and have plans in the near future to add more selections.
There are several neat things that Six Hundred Downtown does to give their customers the best possible food experience. Being the foodies that we are, Sydney and I really appreciated these extras! 🙂
One way they go above and beyond is on their signature pizzas, the dough has to rise for at least 24 hours! This makes the perfect crust. All of their dough is made in house. They typically make three to four batches of dough per day (and a batch is 80 pounds)!
Another way they give their very best to their customers is that they source local companies for the finest and freshest ingredients and products. A few examples of this is their honey, feta cheese and chips. Along with giving their best to their customers they are also helping out other small businesses by supporting buy local! We so love this!
Now for the fun part! Sydney and I got to do some delicious taste testing starting with a couple of their popular appetizers.
We started with their Garlic Knots. Oh my goodness! These were so good! The Garlic Knots are twisted & knotted strips of handmade dough covered in garlic sauce and served with dipping sauce. It was very obvious that they were handmade because no two knots looked exactly the same. The shape was just a tad different and the size was just a tad different. This is a true sign of handmade!
The second popular appetizer we had the opportunity to try was their Pepperolli. Wow, these truly won us over! They were the perfect marriage of taste and texture. Pepperolli is a pepperoni filled breadstick that they roll from their handmade dough and fill with Ohio pepperoni (shop local, yay!) and whole milk mozzarella cheese. This appetizer is also served with a dipping sauce.
We are going to talk about their pizzas next. They have three signature styles of pizza. The first is the Classic Italian Style that has cold risen for 48 hours with no added sugar (this one gets some extra rising time). It is made with 100% whole milk mozzarella cheese and fresh packed tomato sauce. The second is the Detroit Style which is a fermented dough made with local honey and risen to a thick airy perfection. It is baked in a seasoned steel pan until the mozzarella cheese is caramelized perfectly. Finally, it is topped with a sauce of ground tomatoes and Parmesan and Romano cheeses. The third is the Chicago Thin Crust. It is a crispy/chewy crust made with a touch of cornmeal and hand rolled to a super thin texture. This 14″ dense thin crust is covered with aged Provolone cheese which is topped edged to edge. It is then sprinkled with oregano, Parmesan and Romano cheeses. Anyone getting hungry yet? 🙂
Sydney and I ordered a pepperoni pizza (Classic Italian Style). Let me tell you what, is was so delicious! We loved the flavor of the sauce and the pepperoni was absolutely perfect.
Brittany has two personal favorites. The good old plain cheese pizza and the American Muscle. The American Muscle has a red sauce base, two types of pepperoni (regular and natural casing),and two types of mushrooms (fresh and canned).
Their #1 best selling pizza is The Montana. The Montana has a buttermilk ranch sauce. It is topped with grilled chicken, smoked bacon, oregano, Parmesan & Romano cheeses, and Mumford’s Kettle Cooked Chips.
Next came dessert. How we had room for more I have no idea, but we managed to make some. It was definitely worth it too! By the way, we didn’t just have one dessert, we had two!!
The first dessert we sampled was their Cannoli. There are no words to describe these bad boys! Each Italian pastry shell is filled with their own special sweet ricotta filling. We tried the Chocolate Cannoli which was topped with chocolate and powdered sugar. We also tried the Turtle Cannoli which was topped with caramel, shaved chocolate, and candied pecans. Again, we had no words to describe them. So yummy!
The second dessert (I know this is getting embarrasing) we sampled was the Cinnamon Knots. The Cinnamon Knots are their handmade dough knotted up and covered in butter flavoring, cinnamon, sugar and vanilla icing. So scrumptiously good!
When talking with Brittany, she said about 80% of their dine in business is out-of-towners. She said they have a large destination based clientele. They draw from about a 2 hour driving radius! This speaks volumes that they are dedicated to giving their customers the best food and dining experience that they can. Way to go Six Hundred Downtown!
On a side note, Brittany is the 5 time gold winner and has 2 world records in pizza tossing. How awesome is this?
The only thing left is to give you their address so you can go and enjoy it for yourself. Six Hundred Downtown is located at 108 S Main St, Bellefontaine, OH 43311.
Have a great day and we hope that one day very soon you get a chance to try this fabulous pizza!