Bourbon House Pizza - Florence

The Story

Mary Brandstetter grew up in Chicago, where deep dish was never a novelty, it was just pizza. When life brought her to Northern Kentucky, she did not adapt to the local options. She built her own.

Bourbon House Pizza opened in Florence in 2007, and nearly two decades later it remains a true family operation. Daughter Stephanie runs the Florence location, while Mary and son Jeremy manage the Newport shop. Everything, from the dough and sauce to the ranch dressing, is made fresh daily from family recipes that trace back to Granny, the family matriarch.

That becomes obvious the second you ask a question. We asked our server Carly about the hoppenjuans dipping sauce because it was too good not to. Without missing a beat, she gave us the whole story. Granny’s recipe. Strawberry jam and jalapeño jam. Jalapeños from Granny’s garden up the road. She said “Granny” like everyone should already know exactly who she meant. That kind of ownership tells you everything. This is not a restaurant using family language for branding. This is actually the family.

The Vibe

Warm amber walls, orange pendant lights, dark wood, bourbon bottles behind the counter, and “Home of Chicago Deep Dish Pizza” hanging over the room like a mission statement. It feels like a neighborhood pizza joint built for Northern Kentucky, not a themed Chicago transplant trying too hard.

Personality is everywhere. Bengals flags by the window, patio seating out front, live plants on every flat surface, and signs like “Only sissies eat storebought frozen pizza” keep it honest. The open kitchen lets you watch the operation, and the room has the kind of comfortable familiarity that tells you regulars have been claiming the same tables for years.

It is casual, confident, and unpretentious. The kind of place people defend when somebody says they know a better pizza spot.

The Food

The move here is the Chicago-style deep dish. Thirty-five minutes, sauce on top, homemade everything, and your choice of char level on the crust. It arrives like a statement piece, thick walls of crust, layers of cheese and fillings, and that unmistakable red blanket of sauce across the top. This is not novelty deep dish. This is the reason Bourbon House exists.

Start with the jalapeño cream cheese poppers and the hoppenjuans sauce, a house original built from Granny’s recipe of strawberry jam and jalapeño jam. It sounds strange on paper and works immediately on the plate. Sweet, heat, and something almost apple-butter-like underneath it all. Consistent crunch, perfect interior, and a dipping sauce that has no business being that good at a pizza place.

The breaded mushrooms hold the same standard: crispy shell, tender and juicy inside, served with homemade ranch that earns its spot on the table. The chicken tenders are a genuine surprise, thick breading with juice retention that suggests a kitchen that actually pays attention to a fryer.

The thin crust pizzas are loaded and well executed, but the deep dish is the identity. Plan accordingly.

The Bottom Line

Bourbon House is not trying to be trendy, polished, or reinvent pizza. It is a family-built, scratch-made operation that brought Chicago deep dish to Northern Kentucky and has spent nearly twenty years defending that ground.

The appetizers prove the kitchen cares. The deep dish proves why people keep coming back.

If you leave without ordering it, you missed the point.