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Fibonacci’s Pizzeria – Spiciest Dish in Columbus Series

Who ya gonna call, dough-busters! (we apologize immediately for this)

Newly opened in 2020, Fibonacci’s Pizzeria is a small but mighty pizza shop inside Studio 35 Cinema & Drafthouse. Slinging pizzas, sandwiches, and subs, it’s a solid addition to the cozy theater that sits on Indianola. Even with the ongoing pandemic, Fibonacci’s remains open, serving up specialty pizzas and subs with a cinema theme. Many of the ingredients for Fibonacci’s pizzas are locally sourced, contributing to a strengthened food ecosystem in Columbus. After being tipped off by Facebook pal Naga Nathan, we saw their latest addition “The Reaper” was a potential contender for a Top 10 spot in this series.

fibonacci's pizza and garlic bread

Every pizza is a personal pizza if you believe in yourself.

We’ll get to The Reaper momentarily, but first up let’s talk about this garlic bread. Great cheese-to-bread ratio, a thick marinara for dipping, and (you know us) enough garlic in the mix to make us super happy. The Lady of The Farm snagged the FIG-A-MAJIG, a pizza with a Garlic EVOO base, house cheese, goat cheese, prosciutto, organic Smyrna figs, organic arugula, and fig glaze. Fibonacci’s has many pizzas with unique combinations you may not have seen or thought of before, but at the end of the day you also have the option to create your own if you’re not feeling adventurous.

A few others include the Ecto Pesto (note the Ghostbusters opening above), The Camorra (Ezzo brand Pepperoni, sausage, bacon, cremini mushroom, onion, green pepper, house tomato sauce base, house cheese), and Flock Yeah (Fire braised chicken, bacon, blue cheese crumbles, house cheese, buffalo sauce, EVOO base (no red sauce), topped with green onion).

fibonaccis pizza figamajig

We reached out to ask a few questions about The Reaper and thankfully Gabriel Sturges, long-time Studio 35 employee and a partner with Studio 35 in Fibonacci’s Pizzeria, was happy to answer.

FF: We were curious who grows the peppers and what made you want to create such a spicy pie?

GS: I am … an avid farmer with a large (for an urban) garden space. Also a beekeeper. I grew those peppers. To push some limits. (Sturges also mentioned that the honey is sourced from local bee guru Dave Noble [great feature by 614 Now])

FF: How many more do you think you’ll be able to make based on your remaining peppers? Planning on doing it again next year?

GS: Reaper longevity: maybe another 5 days before we discontinue the fresh peppers, string up, and dry the rest.

FF: Did you eat it yourself?

GS: Of course I have consumed The Reaper. Testing started early on as the first peppers ripened. It was much like walking around downtown Columbus a few months ago. Fresh Capsicum in all the places.

FF: And last, if this pizza was a movie, what movie would it be?

GS: If this pizza was a movie, it would be “Triple headed lady,” a film from 1901 on Nitrate film. If not for the invention of extremely flammable nitrate film, and the thick concrete wall and floors poured in 1938, we would not have been able to install a 5500-pound Italian brick oven to make amazing pizza inside of an old projection booth.

Big thanks to Gabriel for answering our questions and pulling back the curtain a bit on the process behind their spicy pizza. Alright, enough talk about the behind-the-scenes, onward to the spicy assessment.

fibonaccis the reaper

Spicy pieeeee.

Christmas-colored with dark reds and greens, the spicetacular pizza you see is Fibonacci Pizzeria’s “The Reaper”. A 12-inch Neapolitan pizza topped with Carolina Reapers, Scorpion peppers, habaneros, ricotta cheese, house-made hot honey, and one topping of your choice (pepperoni for me) along with their house red sauce and cheese blend. All peppers are locally sourced and they’ll keep making the waiver-signing pizza until their pepper pile dwindles, which pizza partner Gabriel Sturges says is roughly early next week.

Columbus has seen a major spicy pizza push this fall and The Reaper was my favorite super-hot pizza for a few reasons. First, the peppers are diced up and seeds are all over the place. Other peppery pizzas use super hot slices, which is fine, but something about the spread of the diced super hots smothering the pizza just hits different. The familiar fiery feeling is spread much more evenly, leaving the sweat to never settle. As has happened with a  few of these spiciest dishes, the sweat eventually stops trying to cool you down and straight-up disappears, a clear sign your body is giving up.

fibonaccis pizza the reaper up close

So many pepper pieces.

Second, the ricotta is a clutch topping on this pizza. The creaminess forms this hellish cheese sludge that continues to coat the sides of your mouth with heat all the way through the pepper pie.

Third, the locally sourced house-made hot honey, with a mystery pepper infusion, brings everything together and adds a sweetness, but also a stickiness where the capsaicin oil clings to your tongue.

Each piece brings you to the edge of deathly heat, then slowly starts to back off. Whether it’s the crust or the ricotta, something in each slice lets you take a slight breather, building your courage back up only to slap you in the mouth again on the next piece.

The grouping of super hots will definitely leave a ball at the top of your stomach and will be too much heat for many, so if you’re looking for some but not all the heat you can try out their Hot Swarm pizza (Cup & Char pepperoni, house cheese, ricotta, pepper flake, house-made hot honey (locally sourced)). This was a tough decision, but with a high pepper density and a linger that had the corners of my mouth burning for many minutes after I was done, The Reaper lands at #5 on our list, just behind Cazuela’s Mucho Macho Burrito and right before The Filling Station’s 9-1-1 Wings.

If you dare to try The Reaper, you’ve got a few days left, but Sturges is confident it will return next year, “We definitely plan on bringing back The Reaper. It’s a solid product, with organic, locally grown peppers that can test one’s worth.”

For more on Fibonacci’s Pizzeria check out their Facebook page or the post from earlier this year by The Columbus Dispatch.

Look below for more in our spiciest dish in Columbus series and hit us up if you have any suggestions that are not already on our list!

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