Bonjour friendly folks. In a never-ending quest of finding new ways to treat your tummy, I offer you a great place to satisfy your pizza palate. (After all, the students of ISU consider pizza their fifth food group, right?)

Let me begin by telling you who I had the privilege of joining for lunch this week — three roommates who I affectionately call the “Great Plains Groupies.” These guys eat at The Great Plains Sauce & Dough Company every Wednesday.

To say they take Great Plains pizza seriously is the understatement of the year; they ritualistically make the trip downtown, rain or shine, every week.

That being said, I knew I was in for some serious eating. Now, it’s been a long time since I’ve ventured onto the prairie and I forgot just how proud of themselves they were.

You are bombarded with “Best Pizza” awards prominently displayed as soon as you venture inside.

Great Plains is Ames’ largest independent pizza restaurant since 1979, and claims to be “PIZZA AT ITS BEST.”

Between the groupies and all of the awards, Great Plains had a lot to live up to.

If the crowded dining room over the noon hour was any indication of Great Plains’ “greatness,” something must be working.

Great Plains offers the standard sausage, pepperoni and (not-so-standard) Canadian bacon lunchtime pizza by the slices. I ordered a Sprite (with quarter refills), a slice of sausage and an order of cinnamon twists all for under $4 bucks! ($3.78 to be exact.)

A word of warning: be sure to bring cash ’cause they don’t take kindly to strangers with checks…

The groupies and I made our way to a corner booth with a burlap table top. Now, it was kinda hard for me to be objective with my review, what with all of the interjections from the peanut gallery and all.

“Great Plains doesn’t have a Huger-Huge because they don’t need one! A couple of pieces is more than enough to fill you up.”

OK — about the name, The Great Plains Sauce & Dough Company. The sauce is a little lacking. My pizza was so overpowered with cheese (this is good), that I couldn’t even find the sauce, let alone taste any (this is bad).

If you’re sick of the boring, run-of-the-mill pizzas other delivery joints pawn off to ignorant college students, why not expand your horizons a little and try something like the “Buffalo” or “Herbivore” (gotta respect the vegetarian-conscious) pizzas.

I haven’t even talked about the best part of Great Plains yet — the crust. Yep, Great Plains is famous for their variety of six different pizza styles to choose from. (Who else in town can claim that?)

Their pizzas range from the “Denver Style” with a rolled edge whole wheat crust, piled with a blend of cheeses, to the “Idaho Style” made with potato flour.

Most people stick with the thick wheat crust which serves double-duty as dessert if you dip it in honey.

As far as pizza goes, Great Plains is definitely different. Sometimes different is good, but personally, I can only handle it a few times a semester. If you’ve never been there, I urge you to check it out for yourself.

Can’t make it to downtown? Don’t worry, Great Plains has you covered with free evening deliveries. Just call 232-4263.

3 1/2 stars out of five.

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Kim Zangger is a senior in advertising from Mt. Vernon.