La Taverna is a restaurant on the west side of Spartanburg, and I had been meaning to visit for a while because this is its newest location after the original closed. I’m about 99% sure the original location closed because of a leasing dispute. They ended up taking over the old Apollo’s location, which ironically was another pizza joint. I really loved the original La Taverna, so I was excited to finally go back.

The place feels similar enough to the old location, though it’s definitely different since it’s a completely different building. I highly doubt they were able to keep all the tables, chairs, and decor from the original restaurant. Everything looked freshly painted and well maintained, and it definitely gave off that classic Italian restaurant vibe. It’s more of a casual Italian restaurant, though, rather than the kind of fancy place where the men wear suits and the women wear evening dresses.

My mom, my son Alex, and I shared a half cheese, half pepperoni pizza, and this is easily one of my favorite pizzas in the Upstate of South Carolina. It tasted exactly how I remembered it from the original location, and I’m very thankful for that.

My wife was very happy with her meal as well. Alex threw me a bit of a curveball by wanting more of the cheese side than the pepperoni side, but he was tired and in a cranky mood, so that usually explains it when he doesn’t quite make sense. Even though he can be a somewhat picky kid, he still really enjoyed the pizza.