GoreMade Pizza – Spiciest Dish in Columbus Series

Fall is a magical time of year, for all things spicy.

If you haven’t noticed, there’s an influx of fresh pepper spiciest dish items and that’s because everyone’s gardens are continuing to crank out fresh pepper pods. GoreMade Pizza is another local spot using the fresh fruit on a new spicy dish. Like many smaller pizza shops in Columbus, GoreMade got their start making pizza with friends, which turned into a mobile wood-fired oven, which eventually turned into their brick and mortar location in Italian Village.

Locally sourced ingredients, including their spicy peppers and a solid menu that has the ability to changed based on the season. In their words, “Come in and check our ever-changing seasonal menu board or the cocktail menu for the latest seasonal discoveries!”

On this trip we were tracking down the 4 Alarm Pizza, a new dish they created with the help of some friends. Pictured below are the 4 Alarm Pizza (regular), the XXX 4 Alarm Pizza, and the Porkistopheles.

This alarming pizza is loaded up with an “olive oil base, our house sausage and blend of spicy peppers from our friends @growingandgrowthcollective, the benefactor of this year’s fundraising! The Carolina reaper tops that list as one of the world’s hottest peppers. There’s also cayenne, red jalapeno and one other we have yet to identify.” They also followed up with “if you’re an absolute spice fanatic and it just can’t be too hot, try it “XXX” for the heat you’re looking for.” Thanks to a spicy fellow on Instagram (h/t mra2311), we were alerted of this pizza’s presence and had to give it a try.

We asked GoreMade about the differences in the 4 Alarm Pizza and found there are 3 variations. “4 alarm or XX adds a spicy house shake, XXX makes us try to hurt you.” The XX shake contains dehydrated peppers up to habaneros, while the XXX shake contains dehydrated Carolina Reapers, Ghost peppers, Yellow Scorpions, and any other peppers they can get their hands on. In their words, “XX adds a spicy house shake, XXX makes us try to hurt you.”

You may call this a cop-out, but we procured two half-sized “Pizza Boats” of the 4 Alarm Pizza, one regular and one as XXX. Can you guess which is which from the pictures?

Which is which? No seriously. Kidding, the right is XXX.

Quick thoughts on the regular 4 Alarm Pizza, this is an excellent opener for anyone looking to get into the spicy pizza game. The peppers on top are nice and spread out and while you have a few moments of pain, it slides into the middle of our list at a mid-30s level. Doable and the crust, sausage and sauce help hide the heat a bit.

That XXX though. The density of the peppers was slightly concerning and the raw super hot smell was noticeable as soon as the box opened. I used my laser pepper vision to examine the pizza to get a gut check of how to approach things.

When you order this pizza, it’s marked down as “Comfort Zone Harry” their base pizza that you can add onto, but really, it should be marked down as “Discomfort Zone Harry.” Picking up the first piece, I flopped a third of it into my mouth. The crust, sausage and sauce do their standard dance, with a slight heat from the sausage. As soon as I hit something crunchy, there was a wave of heat, a moment of panic, and an immediate warmth on my under eyes. Those are the peppers.

The pepper shake they mentioned is most noticeable in and around the crust. All the way through the first slice and dealing with the initial nose unclogging of the peppers, I thought I’d reached a crusty life raft, but it too had some heat nestled inside. Thankfully a majority of the seeds were missing from the diced peppers and the pithy pepper center where most of the capsaicin hangs out was also not on the pizza.

Slice two presented new territory with the first bite loaded with less spicy peppers, but bites two and three were closer to 2×4 to the face territory. Eating this pizza was the food equivalent of driving through a marked minefield with a Zamboni. There is no escape, and the more you check the pizza between bites to examine the landscape, the more scared you will become. As you eat this pizza, you’ll be cruising along, no big deal, and then the spice mix and the fresh peppers catch up with you. Intense momentary pain that gets washed away with the crust.

Peppersssss.

Having just recently mentally recovered from the Uncut XXX Inferno Wings from Hoggy’s GoreMade’s XXX 4 Alarm Pizza was a nice contrast of spicy pie. It’s not a full-on, every bite you take, every move you make, I’ll be hurting you dish, but it definitely delivers that back of the mouth pain. Finishing up the last piece (saved one with a lot of crust for last, work smarter, not harder), my nose was running and my cheeks were flush. I sat back and thought about where this dish ranked.

It’s an interesting dish to assess from a spiciness level. The peppers themselves are super hots and other levels of intensity, but when you reach them, the heat is quick, sharp, and gone. Unlike a lot of the other dishes on our list, the intensity isn’t consistent throughout, so there are momentary stops on the spicy train. With that in mind, we’re placing the XXX 4 Alarm Pizza at #15 on our list, just above Choripan Argentine Grill’s Homemade Habanero Sauce and right below Woody’s Wing House Diablo-Q. If you’re into fresh super hots, this is definitely a must-try. We’re also placing the regular 4 Alarm Pizza at #36, just below Bamboo Thai Kitchen’s Extra Spicy Green Curry and above Chef Rich’s Kitchen’s Crazy S.O.B. Burger.

The 4 Alarm Pizza should be available with the fresh peppers for another week or so depending on their supply, but the pepper shake should be available through winter, so just call in and order to ensure you get the right one.

You can find GoreMade Pizza at 936 N 4th St, Columbus, OH 43201

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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