It doesn’t get much better than eating slices of pizza with your friends around a fire pit on a cool autumn night. If you’re looking for somewhere with a chill atmosphere and great pizza, The Stone Fox offers that and more.

The relatively new restaurant, which only opened in early October of 2020, is located at the corner of Washington Street and Hawley Street. If you missed out on Binghamton’s biannual Restaurant Week, don’t fret! The Stone Fox is affordable and even offers $5 pizzas on Wednesdays, which is great for college students on a budget.

This fall for Restaurant Week, Stone Fox offered a three-course lunch or dinner for $12 and $20, respectively. The lunch menu offered a Caesar or house salad for the first course and the dinner menu offered a Caesar salad or caprese. Both menus contained the same third course, which was a cannoli. The second course options included a few of their most popular pizza options.

My photographer, Abigayle, and I opted for the Caesar salad, which had crunchy, shredded Romaine lettuce with olives and parmesan cheese. The parmesan was sliced thinly and long, which made it feel fancier than the usual Caesar salad. The cheese tasted sharp and savory, which paired nicely with their homemade dressing.

Our waiter David shared with us that the dressing was made with oil, eggs, anchovies, mustard, parmesan and their secret ingredient, a house vinegar and spice blend.

Special recipes with organic ingredients don’t stop at the Caesar dressing — their menu has a variety of pizza styles and combinations. Whether you’re vegan, gluten free or not a fan of marinara sauce, The Stone Fox has you covered. They offer vegan cheese, gluten-free dough and white sauce options. Their menu includes regular cheese and margherita pizzas as well as some more unique flavors such as their garlic prosciutto and clam pies. They even have a s’more pie dessert pizza for those who are one of the few non-pizza lovers.

The Stone Fox’s pizza is one of the best in town, as it is cooked in a wood-fired oven and the ingredients are cooked fresh every day. Their pizzas are 12 inches, which is the perfect way to enjoy one pizza for yourself or order a few with a group of friends to share. This way, you each can try one of the unique pizza combinations on their menu and decide for yourself which pizza you’ll order when you come back a second time.

For my pizza, I chose the veggie pie. Since I am a vegetarian, I’m a big veggie eater which means I’ll throw broccoli or mushrooms on anything and everything. Their veggie pizza was the perfect mix of vegetables, which were broccolini, mushrooms and roasted red peppers. They were all perfectly cooked and charred on top of mozzarella cheese and a subtle white sauce. My pizza was salty and savory, but the vegetables added a tasty note of sweetness.

Abigayle decided to try the Cheese Please pizza with a bit of a twist. The pie usually just includes crushed tomato, mozzarella and parmesan cheese, but Abigayle added some spicy sausage. She thought the sausage had just the right amount of spice and wasn’t too overwhelming. The tomato sauce was perfectly salty with a fresh summery flavor. To top it off, the crust was crispy without being too crunchy which ended the pizza on a great bite.

What makes The Stone Fox’s pizza so great is its crust and dough, which is made fresh daily and cooked at a whopping 700 to 740 degrees to create a perfect char and crisp. My crust was bubbly and charred, but the bottom of the pizza was still soft yet firm. From mushy to burnt, the pizza was at the perfect middle point.

Even though I could only finish half of my pie — don’t worry, I took the rest home as leftovers — I always have room for dessert. The Stone Fox usually offers tiramisu or cannoli, but the Restaurant Week menu option was only the latter and for good reasons.

Coming from an Italian American, their cannoli was to die for. The pastry was crispy and flaky, which contrasted nicely with the cream. The powdered sugar and chocolate chips added a nice touch decoratively and a delicious chocolate flavor.

Our dinner at The Stone Fox was a delicious and enjoyable experience. It’s the perfect spot for dinner where everyone will walk away happy and stuffed with tasty pizza. I was already looking forward to eating my leftovers the next day as I walked back to my apartment carrying their to-go box.