When Chef Dontae Hines opened his first restaurant at the site of the former Highland Pizza, he decided to return to what jumpstarted his culinary career — pizza.
Dontae’s Highland Pizza Parlor, located at 6669 Kratzville Road, is dishing out traditional pizzeria cuisine like cheese bread, soups, salads, strombolis, paninis, and popular handmade pizzas using freshly prepared meats and produce.
“Food is something that brings people together,” says Hines, a city native who has worked at many pizzerias and restaurants across Evansville. “I want this to be a place that people can come to relax and chill.”
Dontae’s offers an assortment of creatively named and constructed pizzas like the Larr, named after a friend of Hines who died from cancer and includes sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, green peppers, black olives, and banana peppers. Among the other specialty pizzas are the Meat Lovers (pizza sauce, beef, sausage, ham, pepperoni, and bacon), Garden (pesto sauce, spinach, onions, roasted tomatoes, and mushrooms), and the Gurg (barbeque sauce, pulled pork, candied jalapenos, onions, and pineapple).
These savory pies are a hit with locals due to the freshness of the ingredients. The parlor smokes its own meats and makes its own dough. They also offer a one-of-a-kind zero carb, zero sugar pizza crust, packed with 42 grams of protein per eight inches of crust.
Customers are hungry to return to Dontae’s week after week. Hines says some waited hours to grab carryout orders on their first day open just to get a taste of one of their pizzas.
They’ve been so successful Hines says they are planning on opening a second location on North Main Street in the near future.
Tasteful Toppings
dontaeshighlandpizza.com
