Firehouse Pizza

I had heard a lot of good things about Firehouse Pizza, so I was interested in checking the place out.
I zipped over to 8879 N. Knoxville Avenue in Peoria for lunch one day this week, meeting my friend R and my mom.
Walking in, you can choose to enter one of two doors, one to the left or one to the right. To the right, I could see golden yellow walls, to the right, a brick wall look. We headed to the right and made our way past tall, dark wood booths to the cash register.
There is a lunch buffet for $7.50, tax included, that comes with salad, pizza and a soft drink. You can also order a personal pizza with a drink for about the same price. I could see the buffet right next to the cash register, so I figured I would try it.
I wanted iced tea, but when I went to the soda station, all I saw was the raspberry variety, so I had a Pepsi instead. Later on I saw regular iced tea on the menu, so I'll have to track it down next time. Firehouse Pizza also offers beer and wine.
We took one of the tall booths, which are equipped with personal flat screen TVs. There was a pretty steady crowd of people in for lunch while we were there, several of them enjoying the programming of their choice in their booths.
Going up to the small salad bar, I fixed a salad of iceberg lettuce with red cabbage, two kinds of shredded cheese, skipped the croutons and went for some of the honey mustard dressing. The quarters were a bit cramped between the cash register, salad bar and pizza bar, with them all being in the same pathway, but everyone managed.
The salad was decent, and I especially enjoyed the dressing.
On to the pizza. The slices were narrow, which was good because I got to try more varieties without wasting food. I first went for a slice of some sort of meat lovers looking pizza, since I spied some bacon on it. I also snatched a slice with black olives and green peppers and went back to the table.
The crust is sort of a hand-tossed style, but the thing I enjoyed the most was the sweet tomato sauce. So much so that I went back for two more slices.
While enjoying our food, we took a look at some of the firehouse memorabilia near our booth and on the walls. I also noticed that the menu on our table mentioned a gluten free pizza and take and bake pizzas.
My mom arrived late, and on her last trip from the pizza buffet she scored a slice of dessert pizza with peaches on it that hadn't been up there before, but alas, I was full. It will have to wait for next time.