With a name like Spooky’s Pizza, pre-Halloween seemed like a perfect time to drive out to Walter Hill and check it out. I wanted to see if they lived up to their tag line, “Pizza so Good, It’s Scary.”
Located in a “hole in the wall” space in a strip mall near the entrance to town, the first thing you notice is a ghost holding a pizza painted on the door, followed by cobwebs tangled in the pendant lights just inside the door.
Once inside, the murals of zombies, vampires, and Frankenstein’s monsters add to the atmosphere. An atmosphere that comes from the first Spooky’s location in the haunted Walking Horse Hotel in Wartrace.
“We had a fancy restaurant in the hotel,” said owner Joe Peters, “and we lost a lot of money on it. Then one of the employees said he knew pizza just as I was getting ready to fire him. He did know pizza. We turned the hotel restaurant into a pizza place. It went well. I learned a lot from him, but in the end, he still didn’t work out. He left, and I never saw him again. But I appreciate what I learned, and that is why Spooky’s exists today.”
Peter’s Walter Hill location has been open for three years but has taken off in the last six months with his addition of a vegan pizza menu.
“One night a guy came in, gave me some cheese, and asked if I could make a vegan pizza,” said Peters, “I told him I wasn’t vegan, but I could try. I did what he asked. He said it was the best one he’d ever tasted. He gave me a taste. I thought it was pretty awful. Then I got started thinking. I could do better.”
After a lot of talking to restaurants and vegans, Peters started to research the best sources for tasty cheese and protein. He chose Follow Your Heart cheese and Sei-Tan vegan “meat.” And then, after perfecting a pizza, he added a hamburger to the mix, followed by wings.
All he had to do was add creative names for each of the items on his menu. The most popular of these new items are the Death Certificate Pizza and the Dead on Arrival Pizza. Spooky’s pizza sauce and vegan mozzarella is topped with vegan meatballs, pepperoni, bacon, and sausage to create the Death Certificate, while Sweet Baby Ray’s Barbecue Sauce, Sei-Tan “chicken” strips, bacon, pineapple, with gourmet vegan cheddar and mozzarella cheeses make up the DOA.
The vegan menu also offers items like the No Kill Grill Spooky Burger, Demon Wings, and Satan’s Scraps which is made of fried Sei-Tan wings, with vegan parmesan, marinara, and oregano.
For those who are not vegans, their main focus is still their original menu of great pizza, wings, burgers, subs, and Graveyard Sides – like fries with lots of goodies on top.
Their pizzas can be made with the choice of a hand-tossed focaccia crust, thin crust, or cauliflower crust. Sauce options include Spooky’s special tomato, white garlic parmesan, alfredo, or barbecue sauces.
For those with a long history in the area, know that you can get an old fashioned fried bologna sandwich called a Pound of Flesh, with the addition of a fried egg and cheese on Texas toast.
I opted for a “Make Your Own Pizza,” and loved the hand-tossed crust. It reminded me of the long-gone DaVinci’s in Nashville.
Spooky’s is well worth the drive.
Spooky’s Pizza
5995 Lebanon Road
Walter Hill, TN
615-217-5000
Hours: 4:00 pm until 8:00 pm, Monday through Thursday
11:00 am until 9:00 pm, Friday and Saturday
12:00 pm until 8:00 pm, Sunday
Facebook: facebook.com/sogooditsscary
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