This edition of Excited about Eating takes us to the Elizabeth neighborhood of Charlotte and to Hawthorne’s New York Pizza and Bar. 

Nice covered patio!

Elizabeth is named after Anne Elizabeth Watts, the only Charlotte neighborhood named for a woman. You can read more about the history here. 

Interior

Dora here. Don’t let this picture deceive you. We arrived right at eleven, and by the time we left, both inside and out was jammed. Hawthorne’s appears to be a popular place for locals as many people walked here.

The garlic cheese bread appetizer was cheesy with just the right amount of garlic. It came out fast, the cheese bubbling and gooey, and browned to perfection. 

Garlic Cheese Bread

Dora here. This cheesy bread reminded me of our favorite pizza place in Florida. We always divided it up into equal portions because our son ravaged it. Same thing happened this time, but with our grandson. A sure sign that it was a winner. 🙂

We wanted to pace ourselves, so we ordered the 9” Meat Eaters pizza, and we were glad we did.

9″ Meat Eaters Pizza

This pizza was loaded with meat (pepperoni, Italian sausage, beef, ham, bacon) and mozzarella. In each bite, I tasted all of the different meat flavors, and they all worked together. One thing we noticed, unlike other meat pies which tend to be greasy and heavy, this pizza was light with no greasy aftereffects. 

Slice of Meat Eaters

Dora here. I really wanted to order the Sicilian, but that only comes in GIANT size, so since we were ordering cheesy bread and dessert, I compromised on this. Not my favorite pizza, but it was good. I appreciated that it wasn’t heavy on the sauce or spice. 

Check out the Cannoli Plate, three mini cannolis. 

Cannolis

Dora here. We first sampled cannolis in Sicily, and loved them! Since then, we’ve tried the US versions, and none of them have come close to what we experienced overseas. Not that we’re food snobs, but buttercream filling..really? Yuck! Hawthorne’s cannolis tasted like the real deal, ricotta and cream cheese goodness in a fried pastry! Three minis were just the right size to cap off our meal. Well, Little Man didn’t think so. 🙂 

We rate this restaurant 4 forks out of 5 for a family friendly restaurant serving great food.