Pizza-making party at Rocky Mountain Flatbread

FROM THE WEBSITE:

We know how to throw the perfect pizza making parties! Prepare to get floured as you roll up sleeves & your pizza making host guides you through creating the perfect artisan pizza! Afterwards, enjoy your flatbread with the perfect pairing of one of our local craft beers or B.C. wines.
WHAT’S INCLUDED:
Party Nibbles: Our famous flatbread with house made dips & organic salads.
Pizza Making: Your personal pizza making host will guide you in rolling out your dough, spreading our house made organic tomato sauce, sprinkling scrumptious Canadian cheeses & adding your favourite gourmet toppings
To Finish: Platters of warm double chocolate brownies served with heaps of creamy vanilla ice cream.
All for just $25 p.p. plus tax & 18% gratuity.

I'd never been to Rocky Mountain Flatbread before, so maybe their pizza-making party isn't the best way to experience them. Anyway, in this review, I will try to talk about only the party, rather than the pizza -- because, well, we made the pizza ourselves, so we're responsible for the quality of the composition (or lack thereof).

After trying the pizza-making party, I would have to say that it's really best for kids. It's listed as an "Adult Birthday Party", but I think it's a bit too simple for that. Here's how it plays out:

Booking

• It is available Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, before 5.30 pm or after 7.30 pm. If you want to take things slow and have a more social time with your friends, give yourself a lot of leeway by booking it to start well before 5.30pm, or take the 7.30pm option and start ON TIME.
• They can accommodate gluten-free persons, but make sure you tell them.

Party Nibbles

• They start you out with a modest amount of flatbread and salad.
• The flatbread is basically pizza with one basic topping, like cheese or pesto, and with a generous amount of dip.
• If you have gluten-free members, look for the heavier-looking grey crust. That's their gluten-free pizza crust.
• Two types of salad. Ours had one with mushrooms and another with chopped fruit.
• Works out to about 1 flatbread and two salads per ~6 persons, I think. I'm sure this part isn't an exact science.
• You get maybe a half-hour before they suggest you go to the kitchen for the pizza-making. Take your drink along or finish it before.

Pizza Making

• This is more like "pizza assembly".
• It is NOT a cooking class. You will not learn the secrets of a gluten-free crust. You will not watch them magically roll out perfectly round pizzas or toss them like in the old commercials.
• The pizza dough is prepared. If it is gluten free, they will have already rolled it out for you because it is apparently harder to handle.
• If you insist on a perfectly round pizza, do a mix of rolling pin and hand-stretching.
• The pizzas work out to a single 10" pizza per person.
• A variety of toppings are make available to you.
• Not a huge variety of toppings, probably to keep things simple and moving along.
• They recommend no more than 5 toppings. You can goof around if you like and make something funny. But if you insist on value for your money, get serious and pile on the toppings.
• Our host was friendly and patient with us and tried to keep things from getting boring by, for example, playing catch with us when giving us the slices of pepperoni.
• After you are done, the pizzas get fired in their special oven, similar to the type for making Neapolitan pizzas, but probably not VPN certified. It actually comes out quite quickly.

Dessert

• Once it looks like you are almost done with the appetizers and your pizzas, they roll out the desserts. Everyone gets one brownie with one scoop of ice cream and some whipped cream. The gluten-free option is a wedge of cheese cake.

$25 + mandatory 18% gratuity + tax = $30.98, plus whatever beverage or extras you ordered.

Is it worth it? Overall, I came out with the impression that it was not, for various reasons, not all of them related to the restaurant.

• You didn't learn anything. Basically you just throw ingredients on your pizza. For your time and money, it would have been better to get a professionally assembled pizza. Or do it at home with pizza crust you buy and any funny ingredients you have at home.
• A small pizza at Rocky Mountain Flatbread is about $10, +$3 if you want a gluten-free crust.
• The people in our dining group didn't know each other prior to going, but we were a friendly bunch, so we were having a great time all on our own without having to have a pizza party.
• However, it's a nice event to bond over especially if you share your pizzas after.