Deep dish pizza at the Nines? Don't forget the corn nuggets!

This week the 14850 Dining Report is in Collegetown visiting an old stand-by, The Nines. This College Avenue pizzeria and bar is in an old firehouse building -- the new station number 9 was built next door -- and offers the area's finest deep-dish pizza, plus sandwiches and a few surprises.

Deep-dish pizza is the way to go here, and you can order a whole pie or a single slice. Note that one slice, a quarter of the square pizza, is plenty of food for most people. Mix and match the toppings; a friend taught me that spicy chicken, pineapple, and roasted red peppers is a fun combination, and I loved it when I tried it last week.

All the pizza comes with lots of cheese, starting under four bucks a slice or fourteen for a full deep-dish, and toppings are reasonably priced. My usual is eggplant, broccoli, and meatball, which sounds odd but works really well, or leave off the meatball to keep it vegetarian. I love the breaded eggplant, which I've never seen anywhere else. The spiced meatballs are homemade and then sliced, so work well on a pizza -- but unfortunately make for a skimpy meatball sub when there's just one layer. Tasty, but too thin to be called a meatball sub, and at $7 it feels like too little food.

Another option is a good tuna melt, as well as cold sandwiches. Not everyone wants pizza or a sandwich every time, so for a change, try the delicious BBQ ribs or the surprisingly good roast chicken. Most sandwiches and such come with potato chips, but for a little extra, go for the great waffle-cut fries. This is no fancy restaurant, but the food is simple, well-made, and delicious.

An appetizer I have to recommend is the corn nuggets, deep-fried morsels of creamy battered corn that were added to the menu here after the Chariot closed four years ago. We order these as soon as we walk in the door, and make a game of counting how many come in each basket and recording the trends.

For something a little less fried than the corn nuggets, try the chicken chili, or the generous spinach salad, piled high with hard-boiled egg and crumbled bacon.

The Nines has a reputation for being slow, and it's true that if they're busy, a pizza can take a while. We try to call ahead to order our pizzas, or get an appetizer order in quickly. You can also ask your server what will come out fast, such as soup or chili or a salad or sandwich -- anything that doesn't have to wait its turn for the limited oven space.

This is also a full bar, with some of Ithaca's best music coming through as well as the famous Blue Monday jam and open mic nights. There are pints or pitchers of excellent beers on tap, including my usual, the Saranac Black Forest. I've been drinking this since it was Prior Double Dark, and it goes perfectly with the pizza. Or enjoy a glass of wine or a mixed drink.

Splitting a pizza and a pitcher makes for a good and affordable outing for a group, so plan on spending $5-15 on a meal. Find the Nines at 311 College Ave next to the fire station, call 607-272-1888 or visit theninesithacaNY.com and tell them you heard about them here.