Getting pizza just right is a science at Ben Yehuda Pizza. Although the kosher pizzeria is located in Kemp Mill, Maryland, people sometimes come from other states to get their hands on a slice.
What makes the pizza so great? “The cliché answer would be love, but we put a lot of work into our recipe and take a lot of time perfecting our cheese-to-sauce ratio,” Ashley Cathro, one of the managers at Ben Yehuda Pizza, said. “It’s scientific in a way. There’s a lot of training that goes into our pizza.”
Another favorite is the mozzarella sticks, which are so popular that Mondays are spent replenishing the supply of the classic appetizer from the weekend’s demand.
“[Customers] love the pizza, and our mozzarella sticks keep bringing people back,” Cathro said.
She added that the restaurant’s mainly kosher clientele appreciates the quality of the homemade pizza. “Our crust is almost New York-style, but not all the way,” she said. “A lot of people tend to like that.”
Ben Yehuda Pizza is unique in that its menu offerings are kosher, vegetarian and vegan.
“We outsource our vegan cheese, and it took months — almost a year — to find a good vegan cheese that tastes like regular cheese,” Cathro said. “We found a brand that is probably one of the best vegan brands I’ve ever had … but it took a lot of time testing the different variations of vegan cheese on the market.”
Cathro said she enjoys running a kosher staple in the tight-knit Kemp Mill Jewish community and beyond.
“It’s very heartwarming,” she said. “It’s good to know that we are able to serve so many people that aren’t just in the Kemp Mill community.”
