Fire Pizza: A Roadtrip to the Best Pizza in Town

Kokomo does not end at the town limits. Just because the border to the city–those drawn up in surveys conducted by local government officials–SAYS our town ends at the corner of two intersecting junctions just outside of a major trafficway doesn’t make it true. This patch of Indiana is more communal, more integrated than that. Kokomo is the beating heart to this swatch of Americana, branching out to numerous towns all around it, serving as a hub of commerce and employment. To the East lies Greentown and Marion, as well as a few smaller villages, to the South, Tipton, West is Russiaville and Galveston slightly Northwest, and Peru sits straight up US31. They feed directly into town, and while they are separate cities, they are very much an integral part of who Kokomo is. These towns around Kokomo provide a core part to its identity.

So, when a citywide hunt for the best pizza in town–as voted by its citizens–begins to check off all the mom-and-pop shop pizza joints, they must include those that serve as living legends to their little slices of Indiana (pun intended).

Russiaville is in the middle of nowhere–population around a thousand–and at its heart is a pizza shack. Fire Pizza, recently voted to have the “Best Pizza in Town” by a survey conducted by The Kokomo Post, sits on the corner of an idyllic junction cutting through the center of town. Going north to south is a county road lined with small homes and a couple tiny convenience stores/gas stations, and heading east to west is State Road 26, the primary route that runs from the south side of Kokomo to pretty much everywhere else due West. If you are a townie, you know this road and town well. To an out-of-state reader, imagine the junction in Disney’s Cars’ Radiator Springs, but with less desert and more corn stalks.

Fire Pizza earned the honors as having the best pizza in Kokomo’s extended borders. Therefore, it deserves the next taste test on A Slice of Kokomo. And for the very first time since taking the reins of A Slice of Kokomo, I have zero experience with a restaurant. Well and truly, this will be my first impressions and my first taste test. Nothing to sully the experience or influence my input. So, with an open mind and an empty stomach, it’s time to try the “Best Pizza in Town”.

There is one caveat…

I live in Marion now. About eight months ago, an opportunity to buy a home came up for a reasonable price (all things considered) and, well, the rest is history. So, to get this pizza on a random lazy Saturday in April required a road trip of sorts. With nothing better to do on a fair day in the Midwest, I packed up my dog into the passenger’s seat and away we went. Meet my tasting companion for the day, Ami.

Thankfully, it was a decent day in terms of weather, and we got to spend the ride with the windows rolled down and music turned up, jamming to her favorite hits. Round trip, we were looking at just shy of a two hour escapade, so to say this was the longest trip I had taken for pizza is an understatement, but I do it in the name of science! 

Roughly 55 minutes of backroad exploration later, Ami and I pull up to a building painted in black and red, which admittedly you CANNOT miss. It was obvious from quite a bit down the road that we were in the right place, but I still managed to struggle to find parking. Even though the spaces are RIGHT THERE in front of the main entrance, with parking spaces clearly outlined and headed by concrete barriers at the top, I managed to blow right passed them and attempt to turn into (what apparently was) the small drive thru behind the building, going the wrong way, and came bumper to bumper with the poor sap who happened to be a true local in the area and was obeying basic traffic flow before my ignorant ass attempted to back him up through an alleyway the size of a Pinto. Embarrassed, I backed up into traffic, circled the block, and collected myself while finding the correct parking lot. 

It was no easy task, but we were here.

I will give Fire Pizza props from the onset. They have a clean, visually appealing building. I am always a sucker for art on the outside walls. Thematically, they stayed on point with the “fire” jazz, the interior keeping the color scheme. In the back, they sold ice cream out of one of those mobile freezer counters, and I am sure had I asked, I could’ve gotten a scoop of chocolate to go with the pie, but this isn’t The Scoop on Kokomo, so I decided to order a large pepperoni/mushroom and call it a day. *Note to self: if Kokomo runs out of pizza parlor, start “The Scoop on Kokomo”, trademarked 2022*

Photo courtesy of the Fire Pizza FB Page

There is now a sign hanging on the wall of Fire Pizza declaring “Best Pizza in Town”. Fifteen short minutes later, I could determine for myself how deserved that award may be. Ami and I propped open our box on a picnic table outside and began to feast. 

At first bite, it hit me. It was like a scene out of an overly-enthusiastic 90’s commercial. The taste, that soft, chewy texture, the savory goodness of Fire Pizza made my eyes go wide and my taste buds do a backflip. Admittedly, I had severe doubts that this pizza could qualify as truly “good”. Whenever someone tries to poll the people of Kokomo for their favorite restaurant/pizza/taco joint, the data is skewed; sometimes this is because the polled people are friends with the owners of a particular restaurant, or perhaps it's just the most local place. I distinctly remember a poll hosted a few years back was abandoned in the finals because fake Facebook accounts were being made and deleted just to upvote Pizza Junkies in town. You can’t always trust online polls for accurate info. Therefore, I walked in with heavy cynicism. But, in just one bite, my entire outlook changed. 

Fire Pizza makes a fantastic pie. That first savory, cheesy bite hit me with such surprise, and it continued throughout my slice. Every once in a while, stopped to tear off a small piece for Ami, which she gratefully accepted and inhaled rather than ate. Together, we powered through slice after slice, each piece just as tasty as the last. The pizza wasn’t too salty or too oily; it was thoroughly consistent, and an easy eat. We must’ve been a sight to behold, a guy and his dog devouring a pizza, shoving mouthful after mouthful down like starving vagabonds. I have no regrets.

Half a large pizza down and bloated from the experience, we hopped back in the Jeep and parted ways with this delicious discovery. Fire Pizza showed us just how good those small town pizzerias can be. Was it the best pizza in town? That remains to be seen. Many of these pizza parlors have great takes on the classic food, and each sports a unique bake or topping experimentation. Maybe I’ll come back to Fire Pizza over and over in the end. For now, it is definitely impressive, and not many places are worth a two hour drive and all that gas money.

Ami was certainly happy with her meal.