This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Business & Tech

Nut House Pizza Makes Perfect Sense for Pizza Lovers

The Wheaton restaurant has been serving kosher food for more than 25 years.

 

While “Nut House” may seem like an odd name choice for a kosher pizza parlor, long-time Wheatoners may think differently if they remember the storefront at 11419 Georgia Avenue’s previous incarnation.

“More than 30 years ago when my brother-in-law and I bought this place, it was still a ‘Planters Peanut Shop’ with a roaster in the window and rows and rows of nuts for sale,” said Nut House Pizza owner Ira Feldman.

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

Five years after purchasing Planters, the two decided to add a small pizza oven in the front of the store, branching out into heartier fare than nuts. Feldman also recalls another somewhat incongruous offering: Halloween masks and novelties.

“This was back when most stores only carried those plastic kid’s costumes. We brought in the good stuff like rubber masks,” Feldman recalls. He also remembers the store being so busy that a traffic cop had to manage all of the cars on Georgia Avenue and employees would toss the masks and other Halloween items over the counter to customers.

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

As for the name, Feldman remembers a day when the landlord was replacing signage out front and asked Ira what he wanted on the new sign. As people knew the location for nuts, “Nut House Pizza” just popped out of Feldman’s mouth, and it has become a Wheaton landmark in the years since.

The store has seen many changes since the original home of “Mr. Peanut.” The single oven has been replaced by a piece of equipment not usually seen at Mom & Pop type places – a conveyor belt oven capable of  turning out more than 80 pizzas per hour.

One thing that hasn’t changed much is the dedicated base of regular customers, the majority coming from the nearby Orthodox Jewish community. Feldman commented that some people have come in just about every week since they opened 30 years ago. In fact, there are two sandwiches on the menu named after regulars – the Ronnie Baras (a meatball sub) and the Rozmaryn (a meatball sub on garlic bread).

All of The Nut House’s offerings are Kosher, yet you can still get a pepperoni or sausage pizza. The parlor is also vegetarian – all of the “meats” are actually meatless substitutes.

The pizza itself is thin crust, which crisps nicely as it travels along the conveyor belt oven. The sauce is on the sweeter side, a nice compliment to the unique cheese blend, some of which Feldman brings in from New York each week.

Nut House also features a number of other sandwiches besides the meatball – tuna melts, reubens, Philly “chickn,” as well as soups and knishes. The sandwiches are all $7.50, while medium and large cheese pizzas are $9.90 and $17.90 respectively. Pizza toppings are $2.95 each.

The prices may be a bit higher than other pizza places in the area, but Feldman says he doesn’t really get many complaints and that people are happy to have a high quality kosher restaurant they can count on.

One other item that stands out is the fresh-cut fries. Feldman creates his own blend of 13 seasonings, with no MSG. It is a bit like a mild Old Bay, without the salty taste. Shakers of “Ira’s Famous Nut House Seasoning" is available for purchase for $4.95.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?