TERRIBLE GERALD'S

Hoppen Hierarchy:★★★★

Neapolitan pizza

Standout Dishes: The Pep Talk; Margherita; Pepperoni

Visit any pizzeria that specializes in Neapolitan-style pizza and you’re likely to find a common denominator—a giant wood-fired oven right in the middle of the kitchen. Whether it’s Dolomiti, Dante, Mootz, or Via Farina, the entire restaurant is dependent on this very specific piece of equipment required to produce the right heat and conditions to birth a proper Neapolitan pie.

The idea of creating something of that quality on a food truck is near insanity… unless you’re Terrible Gerald’s, that is.

On this truck, it’s a pair of green Gozney ovens that do the heavy lifting, but the final product is just as spectacular as the pizzas that come out of the giant ovens.

That’s largely due to the quality of the dough that Terrible Gerald’s employs. The dough undergoes a 48-hr fermentation process, giving it a light, digestible consistency. Once it spends about 90 seconds in the 900-degree oven, the dough evolves into a bubbly, chewy crust with beautiful leoparding and charred pockets.

It’s thin and foldable in the center and puffy and airy on the exterior. The outer edge is so tasty it’s like eating a billowy breadstick, only much more flavorful.

Co-owner Adam Flohr tinkered with the dough recipe with his wife, Maggie, developing such a love for pizza creation that they began putting on pop-ups in early 2022. That success led them to purchase a food trailer in August of 2023, and now they move around Omaha, popping up at bars and breweries (follow them on Instagram for location updates).

It only takes one or two bites of this pizza to understand why the concept has experienced its steady growth. In addition to that glorious crust (which is delicious enough to eat on its own), Terrible Gerald’s uses a tangy, slightly sweet red sauce.

But the piece de resistance is the mozzarella cheese. These creamy dollops of dairy melt to spread their milky, gooey essence all over the pie, giving each bite a rush of smooth richness.

Because its core elements are such standouts, Terrible Gerald’s doesn’t need to load a bunch of toppings onto each pizza; in fact, most offerings only have 2 or 3. They’re beautiful in their simplicity.

Though Terrible Gerald’s typically offers 2-3 specials, there are certain core pizzas you can always expect, including:

Margherita: Allowed to play the lead roles, mozz and sauce shine brightest here, and the fresh basil adds sweet, peppery notes.
Pepperoni: Terrible Gerald’s does not skimp on the char & cup pepperonis, covering every millimeter of the pizza with salty, fatty pork. The tiny discs curl up into mini grease bowls during the cooking process, and my only complaint is I wish they had a bit more texture.
The Pep Talk: It’s the same loaded pepperoni pizza, only now with Calabrian chiles that add pops of saltiness. It’s one of my favorite pizzas in Omaha.

Whether or not you consider Cheese Bread a pizza is up to you, but there’s no debating Terrible Gerald’s version is delicious. That wonderful dough is topped with a pungent, nutty garlic parmesan sauce and plenty of fresh mozzarella, ensuring it doesn’t go dry as so many cheese breads do. And the housemade marinara is the perfect dipping sauce.

While most of Terrible Gerald’s pizzas are pretty authentic and straightforward, this truck isn’t afraid to go off the wall with its recipes. The best example of this is its Crabby Gerald, a melding of pizza and crab rangoon. And some of their specials have included Everything Bagel, Elote, and Loaded Tater.

One of the better specials is the Buffalo Dreamboat, which combines everything you love about chicken wings with Neapolitan pizza. The base is a rich, ridiculously buttery sauce that packs a mild but not overpowering heat. It’s joined by strips of chicken, green onions, and a healthy drizzle of ranch.

The idea that pizza of this quality can come from a food truck is borderline madness. It takes years of experience to learn the art of Neapolitan pizza, and it typically takes tremendously expensive equipment to properly create it.

Then there’s Terrible Gerald’s, cranking out Naples-quality pies out of a humble trailer. While it might be hard to understand how they’re creating these glorious pies in such a tiny space, it’s very easy to appreciate the flavors coming out of this truck.