Macon Pizza Company a fun, family place (with great pies!)

Macon Pizza Company is not only a local business, it's completely family run. On our visit, a very with-it young lady took our order, made suggestions and answered the phone without missing a beat. When our food was ready, a different cutie on wheels skated over to deliver everything with friendly and efficient service. Dad works the kitchen and mom makes sure it all gets done correctly.

We started with the Shark Bites and the Pepper Sticks. Pepper Sticks can be made with jalapeños or banana peppers and are served with marinara sauce. At $8 for a personal sized cheese pizza cut into 16 wedges, they were a little pricey but very tasty. We liked the Shark Bites less, even though you get 40 of them for just $5. They were pillowy and just not the right texture for what is essentially garlic knots.

Any specialty pizza can be had as an extra large, large, medium or even personal size, so we decided to try a few different ones in medium. Our favorite was the Dixieland, with pepperoni, ham, Italian sausage, ground beef and bacon. All the toppings were high quality and generous, blending nicely with the thin crust and slightly sweet sauce.

Our next favorite was the Chicken Pesto Pizza -- with pesto sauce instead of tomato sauce -- garlic, chicken and fresh mushrooms. Other specialty choices include a Big Kahuna with pepperoni, ham, onions, fresh mushrooms, green peppers, Italian sausage, ground beef, black olives, diced tomatoes and banana peppers; a White Pizza with ricotta and baby spinach; and the People's Choice with pepperoni, ham and Italian sausage.

The prices for a build-your-own pizza rivals those of the big chains: an 8-inch personal cheese pizza is $4.99, a 12-inch is $9.99, a large is $11.99, and the 16-inch is just $12.99. Add $1.50-$2 for each additional topping, depending on the pizza size, and you can make yourself a great deal.

We also enjoyed the $6 calzone, the toasted meatball sub and the baked hot wings. All of these items seemed very reasonably priced.

Our dessert was a crazy concoction of cheesecake, Hershey bar and calzone crust that tasted something like a decadent s'more. You can definitely share this with a table of four and split the $8 price tag. There's also Hawaiian Ices, a shout out to the owner's previous life in the islands.

Here's who I think should take advantage of this cute little family's pizza shop: families who have a lot of kids to feed and young teens without cars headed to or from the movies. It's safe, it's fun, it's not expensive for most items, and it's a great place to hang out for teenagers. Families will enjoy the energy here and can feed a crowd for under $30.

Macon Pizza Company

Address: 5978 Zebulon Road, Macon

Phone: 478-474-0000

Website: www.maconpizzacompany.com

Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday

Payment: Cash, credit

Smoking: No

Alcohol: No

Kids Menu: No

Noise Level: Low

Health Rating: 100

Price range: $4.99-$19.99

Rating: 2.5 stars

This story was originally published March 31, 2016 at 5:14 PM with the headline "Macon Pizza Company a fun, family place (with great pies!) ."