Deciding what and where to eat is always a chore, but at least those of us who live in town-side Honolulu are lucky to have a lot of options. Imagine if you live in tiny Waialua, where dining out often means braving the two-lane traffic to Haleiwa or Wahiawa. On the plus side, Waialua is also home to a pizzeria that would have been trending long ago if it were within sight of the urban social hive.
Jerry’s Pizza Mill is actually more than a pizzeria. Sensitive to the needs of the community, owner Jerry Coffman also offers credible burgers, sub sandwiches, chicken wings, salads and more, so he said it’s not unusual to see regulars coming in for something different every night.
There’s also a small game arcade in back for kids waiting for their parents after school.
“I like to think I’m keeping them from going down the wrong street. I keep ’em there, do some baby sitting, and they can put a slice of pizza on their parents’ tab. If they can’t pay today, it’s no problem; they can come back tomorrow,” Coffman said. “That’s unheard of today but this is the country. It’s a little bit different out here.”
Being in the country means finding your way with landmarks. On Goodale Avenue, Jerry’s is behind a gas station and near the Feed Trough, not a restaurant, but a livestock feed store.
The restaurant is spacious, with an interior of dark wood, and a chalkboard up front listing all the specialties. Sit there if you want to see the pizza makers at work, tossing and rolling out dough. The more private back room houses a stage for live music Friday and Saturday nights, and karaoke Sunday nights, although karaoke can happen any time.
“People rent it out for private parties. If they want to sing, we’ll bust out the machine.”
Coffman grew up in Long Beach, Calif., came here to surf in the 1980s and never went back. He studied hotel and restaurant management at BYU-Hawaii and made a living as an ice cream man and as kitchen manager at D’Amico’s Pizza in Sunset Beach. He started Sunset Pizza after D’Amico’s closed in 2000, and when the building that housed his pizzeria was torn down, he moved his operation, opening Jerry’s Pizza Mill two years ago.
His claim to fame is a New York pizza on a thin, soda cracker-like crust. I love the flavor and crispness, although it tends to get soggy in the center from the moisture and weight of toppings.
Light was the way to go, Coffman said. “Today everyone’s allergic to gluten. All of a sudden they can’t eat bread and flour. There’s still flour in our crust because we don’t have a lot of full vegans here, but we reduced it. The bigger request is for ‘no cheese,’ and we can do that, too.”
In addition to making dough from scratch, Jerry’s makes its tomato sauce from scratch and tops its pizza with ingredients from farmers markets and grocery store Waialua Fresh.
“People keep asking me, ‘What’s your secret?’ But there is no secret. We just make it fresh like you would if you were making it for your family.”
To start, Jerry’s offers 11 specialty pizzas in 12 and 16 inches. Jerry’s Pizza ($15/$18.50) has pepperoni, garlic, fiery jalapeno and pineapple to cut some of the pepper’s heat.
Classic choices include the “Meaty” ($15.50/$18.50) with pepperoni, sausage and ham; and “Waialua,” topped with pepperoni, sausage, mushroom, olive, fresh tomatoes and garlic.
Barbecue fans will find themselves at home with the saucy barbecue chicken, onion and cilantro combo ($15.50/$18.50), and non-tomato lovers have the option of a white pizza ($15.50/$19) slathered with garlic butter and topped mozzarella, mushrooms, onions, tomato and ricotta.
You can also build your own pizza, starting with plain cheese for $13 (small) and $15 (large), with toppings running 75 cents to $1.50 each.
Coffman’s wife, Paula, is from Brazil, so you’ll find Brazilian influences on the menu as well, from a pizza of fresh arugula and sun-dried tomato ($15/$18) to the Portuguesa ($15.50/$18.50) topped with ham, onion, slivers of boiled egg and black olives.
But the best of the Brazilian influences comes from 8- and 12-inch dessert pizzas ($6/$9) built on the same crust, with chocolate and strawberries drizzled with condensed milk, and banana-cinnamon options.
Considering all that’s on the menu, I thought the nonpizza offerings would simply be afterthoughts, but they stand on their own merit. The bacon-avocado cheeseburger ($7.25) would rival that of any burger specialist. Again, Coffman says there’s no secret, save for using fresh local beef with no fillers.
A Philly cheesesteak ($7.75) is similarly fresh-tasting, made with flavorful tri-tip steak on house-made bread. Other sub options include meatball, chicken Parmesan, link sausage, chicken bacon ranch and hot turkey.
For a touch of green, an antipasta salad ($11.25) is loaded with ham, pepperoni and salami, with mozzarella, onions and black olives.
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Nadine Kam’s restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Advertiser. Reach her at nkam@staradvertiser.com.
