Corner Grille

**This restaurant is permanently closed**

“I noticed you got the last Oatmeal Cream cookie,” a fellow diner said to me as I sat down at an empty table next to her at the Corner Grille. “I couldn’t resist starting with dessert,” I replied as she pointed to the same but empty cookie wrapper on her table. Her friend just nodded, obviously satiated with his mouth full of fluffy molasses cream that had previously been sandwiched between two thin and crispy oatmeal cookies.

The Corner Grille’s dessert display provides a dizzying selection of cookies, brownie ends, Rice Krispy treats, whoopie pies, and jelly-filled wonders as appetizers to their renowned gourmet pizza. Ever been to a pizza parlor where you can’t narrow down your choices of gotta-try items to less than five? The Corner Grille makes specialty pies that leave other parlors in the (semolina) dust, and unable to decide, I opted for a simple Sweet Tomato & Basil Pie. Their “small” is a rather large, 14-inch oblong pie.

Arriving on a rectangular tray like the ones at Frank Pepe’s, this pizza has incredibly thin crust, about the width of a tortilla. But the burnt semolina grit and bubbly browned edges prove that it is legitimate pizza crust, and the toppings are fresh and bursting with flavor. After inquiring about how the chefs made such thin crust—did they roll it thin? is it pressed on a machine?—my server said, “I can’t tell you; I had to sign a confidentiality agreement to work here.” Fair enough, but be it known that the Corner Grille may have the thinnest pizza in the country. Ergo, a 14-incher is enough for one person, and it’s perfectly acceptable to fold over the piece to facilitate taking bites, like New York style pies.

A wide array of scrumptious wraps, salads, and homemade soups sounded tempting, and customers picking up call-in orders were also grabbing to-go deli items (hummus, Tuscan bean salad, pot pies, quiches, mac & cheese, etc.) from the cooler adjacent to the cash register. Exotic bottled sodas are also available, including the all-natural line of Tommy’s Naked Soda of Boston, which is akin to New Mexico’s Blue Sky brand of natural sodas. The Corner Grille is a true gem in Worcester, serving some of Massachusetts’ most unique pizza.