Ranch Pizza and LoRo Coffee flavor downtown Vancouver with something unique

Eric Wood and Richard Corey began Ranch Pizza by delivering their square pies to bars in Southeast Portland. They later opened a brick-and-mortar  shop in Northeast Portland with a life-size cutout of Huey Lewis, an ’80s advocate for all things square.

Ranch Pizza now has nine shops, including the one that recently opened near  Esther Short Park in Vancouver. It’s easily spotted by the bright photos of square pizza slices on the side of the building.

Several years ago, Wood visited Little Conejo, fell in love with the tacos, and then wandered around downtown Vancouver. He told Corey that he thought it would be a great place to expand their Portland business.

Wood and Corey reverse-engineered their pizza to sop up ranch dressing, a nostalgic take on pizza served at places the owners visited in their youth like Round Table and Papa’s Pizza.

Despite this seemingly unserious approach to pizza, this pie would satisfy the demands of any foodie. It’s a Sicilian style pie with a thick but airy crust and edges made crisp by aged mozzarella melting along the inside of the pan. When the duo started out in 2017, they didn’t intend to make Detroit pizza but Ranch’s pies have a lot in common with that trendy Midwestern style that shares its Sicilian roots.

The sauce and toppings at Ranch lean into a hint of spice to be cooled by its namesake creamy herb-studded dressing. The crust serves as a sponge to sop it up.

“The thick crust lends itself to ranch instead of a thin pizza,” Eric Wood said. “I get why New Yorkers don’t understand it. You can’t dip a thin crust into ranch.”

I visited Ranch Pizza’s Vancouver location on a weekday for lunch. Pizza comes in whole pies ($24.50-$31.50) or quarters ($7.50-$9.50). The quarters are like one large slice.

I ordered the Veggie with mushrooms, Kalamata olives, purple onions and strips of fresh basil as well as the #4 with thin oil-cured Calabrian chiles, crumbled sausage, dollops of ricotta and strips of fresh basil as well as a Rad Caesar ($12.50). A quarter pie comes with one side of ranch, a whole pie with two.

I was a devout never-rancher before trying Ranch Pizza years ago. Though I grew up in the Midwest, as a Gen-Xer I didn’t experience the ranch-dipped childhood that coated this country, just as I was a bit old to get into Harry Potter, blanket scarves and skinny jeans.

Ranch Pizza’s dressing is made daily — an enticing mix of buttermilk, sour cream, mayo, fresh and roasted garlic, and freshly dried herbs that lend flecks of emerald to the white sauce.

The pizza was as I remembered it when I first visited the shop on Northeast Dekum Street in Portland years ago: a light, billowy square-shaped crust but with cheese-crisped edges. And I did what I normally don’t do: drizzled it with ranch. I also liked the Rad Caesar, a large bowl of chopped bitter, crisp radicchio coated in a creamy, tangy sauce and dusted with a cloud of shredded Parmesan cheese and crushed bread crumbs.

As I ate, a playlist with Boston, BTO, Led Zeppelin, The Cars, Eddie Money and Fleetwood Mac animated the space — a fitting accompaniment to pizza that’s an adult version of something that would have been eaten with one hand while using the other to play Donkey Kong.

The next morning, I visited LoRo Coffee, Ranch Pizza’s sister shop that shares the Esther Short Park space. The vibe had shifted, with twee Christmas music flowing through the room like glittery handmade tinsel. The pastry case was filled with muffins ($4.75), scones ($4.50), croissants ($4.50-$5), morning buns ($5) and galettes ($5.50) from Portland’s Bakeshop.

Housemade focaccia filled with eggs, cheese, and toppings with meat and vegetarian options are included on the breakfast menu ($7.50). Coffee from Proud Mary and Dear Francis are served here. Miso Butterscotch Latte ($6-$7), Pumpkin Pie Latte ($6-$7), Good Day Latte (with golden turmeric, warm spices and adaptogenic mushrooms for $6.50-$7.50), and Apple Cider Chai ($3-$5) were offered as drink specials, along with drip coffee ($3-$4) and espresso drinks ($3.50-$6).

I tried the Miso Butterscotch Latte accompanied with a cranberry-apple galette. I typically drink black coffee or espresso because I like to taste the essence of the bean in each sip. Nonetheless, the idea of miso and butterscotch in a latte reeled me in. The miso added creaminess and just the right sprinkling of salt to amplify the butterscotch flavor.

I was fairly certain that Ranch Pizza would be good, but LoRo was a surprise. Vancouver has great coffee shops and I didn’t think we needed another, but I’ll be back for that Miso Butterscotch Latte.