Pizza is a food that has made its way into many people’s hearts. It’s perfect for any occasion and you can eat it at any location. People bond and make memories just by sharing a slice of pizza. It’s one of those comfort foods that can satisfy any craving that you may have due to its very versatile style. You can literally put anything on a pizza! Now, you can’t get a pizza that can deliver this satisfaction anywhere. You have to go to the right place. But where is that place?
Ashburnham is known for very few things, seeing as it is such a small town. Almost every time you tell someone you’re from Ashburnham, they’ll go, “ where’s that?” That’s when we pull the, “ It’s next to Westminster” or, “Next to Winchendon.” My personal favorite is, “ In the woods, in the middle of nowhere.” But in all seriousness, Ashburnham has a lot to offer. The center of town is filled with color and much history, but most importantly: pizza. Not just one pizza place though. There’s two.
Brother’s Pizza and Village Pizza. Those are the two pizza places located in Ashburnham. Best part, it’s a minute drive from one location to the other. If you’re from Ashburnham, you know the deal. You either like one or the other. This debate is bigger than big, it’s huge. As I mentioned, pizza carries a very big role in people’s lives. I mean it’s a world wide popularity. This is a very unspoken rivalry that everyone knows about. I mean, how does one pick between the two? What does each store offer that makes them stand out? It’s a very tough decision. Luckily, we’ve got a whole town ready to settle this on-going debate.
Let’s compare the two pizzerias first.The first one that we’ll look at is Brother’s Pizza. Here’s a rundown of the menu: pizza, calzones, clubs, cold subs, hot subs, quesadillas, seafood, gyros, hamburgers, dinners, pasta, salads, appetizers, and desserts. It seems to be a very large menu. With every single one of these items come a wide variety of options to choose from. According to their websites, their pizza is gourmet. Along with the wide variety of pizza, there are many additional toppings and the pizza can be purchased as a small, large, or party size. Price wise, it is pretty standard compared with most places. The pros to brothers seems to be that they have a very wide selection, average prices, and deliver. Delivery is big in Ashburnham because many places don’t deliver this far. The cons to having a wide selection is that it could mean that there is a lack of a specialty. A more condensed menu would allow more focus on the pizza quality itself to be popular seeing that it is a pizzeria. I’ll admit, it’s a very lovely menu, however; it gets a bit complicated with offering so much. People usually order pizza, calzones, or subs at a pizzeria.
Now, let’s take a look at Village. Starting off with their menu: pizza, appetizers, salads, calzones, roll ups, hot/cold subs, pasta, dinners, seafood, and desserts. Again, a very large menu with a wide variety of flavors for each item. Village seems to offer more variety pizza wise than Brothers. I noticed that here, there are more specials, combos, and deals to offer. Another huge factor is that gluten free pizza is offered at Village. Comparing Hawaiian pizzas, Brothers is about a dollar cheaper. But again, prices might be a tad pricier, but still standard. I’d say you get your money’s worth though because you can tell that the pizza variety is what is most popular. They also provide delivery which as I mentioned is helpful around here. Overall, Brothers has better prices but Village seems to have a better menu. The real question is, which one tastes better?
Though I am no expert, after tasting each one I found that I personally liked Village better. I felt that the pizza wasn’t as greasy or doughy as Brothers’. I bought a cheese pizza from both places to keep it simple and I like my pizza to be on the thinner side and toasty like brick oven pizza. Though these are no brick oven pizzas, they could be pretty close in my opinion. Though I would have liked to conduct a survey, I feel as though it’s only fair that we keep the town somewhat civilized. I did however get input from quite a bit of people.
I spoke to some freshmen about the controversy and here’s what they had to say.
The anonymous group of freshmen that I spoke to had a different belief than mine. They all preferred Brothers better. They agreed that sometimes the food was too greasy, however; they really enjoyed the doughy pizza and their chicken wings. One of them even added, “ I don’t like a lot of sauce on my pizza, and I feel like Brothers offers that unlike Village.” To get perspective, I decided to turn to a different group: adults.
We all know that some of the best pizza lovers have been in the game for a long time. You can only get the best advice from the people who have seen and tasted it all. Speaking to some Ashburnham Natives, many of them preferred Village. One man said, “ I really enjoy a good sub from Village. I’ve honestly gotten to try and compare Steak Bombs from both places and Village just stood out to me with its explosive flavor and its size.” Many agreed that the portions at Village were a bit more reasonable and they enjoyed the thinner sized pizzas that compared to Village.
So as we can see, it’s honestly a very close race. Both are popular and loved by groups of people. It’s hard to tell which could be considered the best. This competition has been ongoing for years, and apparently for more years to come. There will never be a true winner in Ashburnham. I mean, we honestly have two incredible pizza shops if their popularity is that high. That is quite an accomplishment. So, if you’re ever looking for a good pizza in Ashburnham, I wouldn’t ask someone from the area, seeing that our opinions are pretty strong. Instead, try one from both.
