My in-laws live in the Lehigh Valley and we celebrate the majority of our family birthdays and some holidays there. That’s given me the opportunity to post on several restaurants in that area.
Our most recent outing was to celebrate the birthday of my brother-in-law, Mike, and for the second time in the past year our destination was Switchback Pizza Company in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. They specialize in traditional Neapolitan-style pies, the owners having spent a couple months in Italy learning to make them in wood-burning ovens back in 2011.
The seven of us were seated at a large wood table in Switchback’s semi-enclosed rear dining area. The weather was warm and they had fans blowing. I imagine they exchange those for heaters during the cold weather months.
In addition to pizza, Switchback specializes in hard ciders and features several appealing salad options, all of which were ordered by at least one of my dining companions.
I skipped the cider in favor of a Kutztown brand root beer, but both brothers-in-law and my sister-in-law ordered flights of cider.
The salads came out first, and while I followed my usual pattern of not having any, they looked good, especially the arugula salad, which included roasted sweet potatoes, wild rice and walnuts, in addition to Gorgonzola.
None of house topping combinations grabbed me, and I requested a white pizza with Mozzarella and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheeses, sausage and caramelized onions. It turned out to be a great blend of flavors.
As is generally the case with Neapolitan pies, the crust was a bit softer and puffier than New York-style pizza. While I tend to prefer a crispier and less puffy crust, the flavor that this one took on from from the wood-burning oven was sensational.
The amount of cheese and toppings was also nicely judged, with everything coming together beautifully.
After her salad, my wife wanted something smaller than the standard 12” pies and ordered a children’s white pizza, which featured Mozzarella and probably Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Her parents shared a Blue Moon pizza that included roasted portobello mushrooms, caramelized onions and Gorgonzola, while Mike opted for a thick-crusted plain Detroit-style pizza.
I didn’t hear any complaints and everyone seemed satisfied with their food.
After lunch we filed back into our cars and headed into tiny downtown Emmaus to check out Grandpa Joe’s Candy Shop, which stocks a fantastic array of sweets, including an entire wall of out-of-town or rare sodas.
There was no way I was getting out of there without buying something and I settled on a Goo-Goo cluster with Cheerwine-infused nougat. Cheerwine is a cherry-flavored soda that is popular in and around North Carolina, although they’ve started carrying it at my local supermarket outside of Philadelphia recently.
Grandpa Joe’s has a very impressive root beer selection and I also picked up a bottle of Triple XXX, named for the Triple XXX Family Restaurant of West Lafayette, Indiana, a roadfood haunt I’ve wanted to visit for years. At least I’ve tried their root beer now.
I’ve been posting more than usual on pizza lately, but that’s what I’ve been craving, and I always try to follow my food cravings. To that end, another pizzeria is on tap for next week; this one serving New York-style pies in the Bucks County town where I grew up.
BZ Maestro Eats 
Another fine report! And the Neapolitan pizzas have me drooling
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The pizzas look great! And the salad was very photogenic, which is about the nicest thing I’ve ever said about salad in my life.
I see that the sausage is described as sweet. Did that mean that it was mild or did it actually have a sweetness to it? Around here sweet can sometimes mean the latter, which I find to be unpleasant.
While we’re both still waiting for that first visit to Triple XXX, you’ve beaten me to the root beer!
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I don’t recall it actually being sweet.
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