Otto Pizza replaces Upper Crust, brings squash, zucchini toppings to West Campus

A new pizzeria featuring butternut squash, apple and cauliflower toppings replaced The Upper Crust Pizzeria on Aug. 25 as one of several restaurants in West Campus where students can satisfy late-night pizza cravings.

Otto Pizza, a food chain from Maine with locations in Coolidge Corner and Harvard Square, uses ingredients “put together in interesting and innovative combinations,” said Otto Pizza spokesman Frank Gallagher.

“It’s unlike any other pizza you’ve had,” Gallagher said. “I mean, you can’t walk into any other place in town and get a slice of mashed potato-bacon-scallion pizza or butternut squash-ricotta or red onion-bacon-apple.”

Featured in Food Network Magazine and The Boston Globe, Otto Pizza boasts toppings such as zucchini, white bean and three-cheese tortellini on tomato or white pies.

Customers can order slices such as pulled pork and mango pizza for $3.50. Large pies start at $15 with an additional $2 per topping.

Gallagher said many items are vegetarian, and customers can order vegan pies.

“I think just the nature of the product stands out,” he said. “It’s a great slice. It’s an incredible value. Wherever we’ve gone in any location people have embraced it and come to love it.”

The store closes at midnight on most days and at 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, Gallagher said.

But, along Commonwealth Avenue, Otto Pizza is one of several pizza places from which students can choose.

For T. Anthony’s, a West Campus landmark open since 1976, the new restaurant is just another competitor the restaurant has faced over the years.

“Well, there’s competition in the area no matter what. Whether they’re opened or closed, it doesn’t matter,” said T. Anthony’s owner Joe Rastellini. “So the people that like me, I figure, come to T. Anthony’s.”

BU athletic pictures line the walls at T. Anthony’s, a pizza joint that features specialties such as spinach eggplant lasagna and offers subs, wraps and pasta dishes.

Slices start at $2.20 with 30 cents per topping, while large pies vary from about $12 to $16.

Rastellini said his business, which makes a lot of homemade foods, probably attracts more of the “meat-and-potato type clientele.”

“We make our own dough,” he said. “I don’t know which one of our competitors buy it or don’t make it, but I think a lot of the people don’t make it.”

T. Anthony’s has roughly the same late-night hours as Otto Pizza, but also offers a delivery service Otto Pizza does not.

Nearby at 840 Commonwealth Ave. sits Sicilia’s Pizzeria, whose baby pizzas start at $5.99 with large pizzas beginning at about $8.

Open until 2 a.m., Sicilia’s also delivers and features calzones, seafood and sandwiches on its menu.

Students in East Campus can also find pie at Sal’s Pizza and the University Grill and Pizza, next-door neighbors at 714 and 712 Commonwealth Ave.

Family-owned since 1960, UGrill offers “mega” cheese slices at $3.49 and serves a range of Greek foods but does not deliver.

Alex Michaelidis, one of the four brothers who manages the business, said Greek sandwiches are the most popular item on the menu aside from pizza.

“We stick to the simple approach, the way it’s always been,” he said. “Everything is made here. It’s not a new thing but everybody talks like someone just discovered it now.”

The mega pizza slices are popular too, and customers eat half there and take the other half with them for lunch and supper, Michaelidis said.

“So for $3.50 they eat twice, which is good for the college area,” he said.

Michaelidis said non-traditional toppings are just a fad.

“You can make a fancy pizza, but it’s a peasant food,” he said. “How fancy can you make peasant food? It’s what my mother would make on the weekends with leftover dough.”

Some BU students said convenience determines where they’ll buy their slice.

Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences junior Felisha Perry Smith said she usually gets pizza at Sal’s during the summer because it’s quick.

“I like their BBQ chicken pizza,” she said. “It’s really good.”

Late at night, Perry Smith said she orders from Papa John’s or Domino’s because they deliver.

Perry Smith said she is not sure if she will visit Otto Pizza, although she does like veggie pizza so she might visit.

“I just went to Sicilia’s for the first time in three years so I don’t know if I’ll go anywhere else,” she said.

Tony Osinski, a second-year graduate student in the School of Public Health, said he went to The Upper Crust before it closed because it was right by his place.

“The new one I’m sure will be fine too,” he said. “We don’t discriminate too much with pizza.”