Cheers Cafe Bar Pie is, Quite Literally, the Best Kept Secret in NEPA

The Bar Pie Pizza from Cheers Cafe in West Pittston is one of NEPA’s best kept pizza secrets!

Cheers Cafe: Beloved by Those Who Go, But Not Enough People “In the Know!”

When you’ve reviewed local pizzas in the same area for the better part of a decade, one might start to think that you run out of surprises and unique offerings.  After visiting Cheers Cafe in West Pittston (700 Luzerne Ave, West Pittston, PA 18643) I can say for sure that NEPA still has many pizza tricks up its sleeve.  

A few of my reliable pizza snob friends and members of the NEPA Nation called my attention to a bar pie they had tried that they said was really good and I immediately took to social media to check it out.  I figured that Cheers was a new place as I had never heard of it before.  I asked a few other friends who lived down in the Pittston area and they weren’t sure what place I was talking about either.

A look at the underside of the razor thin crust.  Note the charring around the edges which provides a ton of flavor and crunch.


When I arrived at Cheers to try the pizza, I was shocked to see the banner on the building saying “Celebrating Our 35th Anniversary.”  So this was obviously not a new place, but a community fixture for many years, how would so few people (that I spoke with)know about it?!  All the messages I received said “good people, good pizza” which is really the type of place I seek to review and feature.  I was excited and intrigued at what I would find inside and in terms of pizza.

A full 16″ bar pie from Cheers Cafe in West Pittston, PA.


I entered the dining room on the side door on Salem Street to find a cozy little dining room area and counter to pick up the food.  I could see there was a full bar toward the front of the building that appeared to be inviting as well.  It The people were incredibly friendly and welcoming and my pizza was ready fresh and hot in no time.  I would’ve loved to sit and learn more about Cheers’ history, but during a pandemic and with a hectic schedule I had to get back to the pizza mobile to review which you can check out in the video below.

The bar pie itself looked great with it’s orangish/reddish hues cast by the deeply red and robust sauce and browning from the oven.  It was build upon a razor thin crust that had some light and lovely charring around the edges.  It was cooked on a screen and had a little bit of a flop to it, but was easy to eat and enjoy.

The sauce was quite unique and was the predominate flavor emerging from each bite.  The crust was unique, and the cheese blend had a little saltiness to it which is what you want from a bar pie.  As I tried to think about comparables to this pizza, there were none in the area that came to mind – it stands on its own!  The sauce was sweet with a little zest to it – the best sauce comp I could draw on was Dino and Francesco’s.  

Overall, I thought it was an awesome pizza that was well imagined and very well executed.  I enjoyed every single bite and so did those that I shared the pizza with afterward.  I really liked this bar pie, and it lived up to the hype of the high standards that my pizza snob friends bestowed upon it.

Some may be asking, what is a bar pie?  Well, technically speaking it’s just a pizza that is served at a bar!  More specifically, we’re generally referring to a small, thin, round pizza with a very flavorful sauce and a saltier cheese that would make you want to drink more while you’re at a bar!  Think about Chicago Cracker Thin or St. Louis Style pizzas – they both meet this definition of “Bar Pie” or “Tavern Pizza” but there really aren’t any hard and fast rules.  In fact, Cheers is doing their bar pie in a 16″ size, so that’s gigantic compared to whatever norms we want to characterize a bar pie with.  

Pan Fried Sicilian Pizza from Cheers Cafe in West Pittston. Photo Credit: Cheers Cafe Facebook Page.

Either way Cheers Pizza is delicious and I highly recommend it to the NEPA Nation!  They also have a Pan Fried Sicilian Pizza and Old Forge Style available.  Have you tried Cheers’ pizza yet?  Let me know in the comments!

The Ratings

Restaurant:  Cheers Cafe
Location: West Pittston, PA
Date: January 2021
Eat In/Take Out: Take Out

Pizza Ordered: Bar Pie
Price: $10.00
Crust: 7.4
Sauce: 8.1
Cheese: 8.6
Overall Taste: 8.5
Crispy/Cooked Properly: 7.4
Overall Value: 8.7
OVERALL RATING: 8.1
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