This Small Virginia Mountain Town Serves Unusual Pizza Worth a Stop on Your Next Road Trip

Apple butter is usually something you’d spread on toast or biscuits, but a restaurant in Virginia is putting it on pizza instead. Dogtown Roadhouse in the small town of Floyd serves a pizza called The Appalachian, made with local apple butter in place of traditional tomato sauce.

The pizza also has aged white cheddar, goat cheese, caramelized onions, and sausage from Epperly Farm. It’s listed on the restaurant’s regular menu, and customers can choose marinara sauce instead if they’re not feeling adventurous.

Co-owner Alexandra Epperly told Southern Living that The Appalachian originally started as a weekly special. People liked it so much that the restaurant decided to keep it, and it’s now one of their bestsellers.

Dogtown makes all its pizza dough in-house and hand-tosses it when customers order. The restaurant also has a stage for live music, which is a big part of life in the Blue Ridge Mountains town.

Apple Butter Isn’t the Only Unusual Pizza Topping

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Dogtown has another pizza with fresh grapes and almonds on it. The Dogtown White is made with gorgonzola cream sauce, mozzarella, grapes and almonds, which is quite a bit different from the usual pepperoni or cheese pizza.

There’s also one called the Creamy Pig, with béchamel sauce, bacon, sausage, prosciutto, jalapeños and banana peppers. The Kitchen Sink has a more traditional marinara base, but it’s loaded with vegetables, two kinds of meat and two cheeses.

Apple butter even makes an appearance on the appetizer menu. Customers can order flatbread with apple butter on the side.

Dogtown Started Out Selling Pizza From a Truck

Long before it became a restaurant and music venue, Dogtown was selling wood-fired pizzas from the back of a truck. Founders Jon Roberts and Scott Smith spent more than two years taking their pizza operation on the road before opening a permanent location.

According to a 2010 article originally published in The Floyd Press, they opened Dogtown Roadhouse that summer in a renovated building in downtown Floyd. The restaurant had a bar, dining areas, and a stage where local musicians could perform.

Live music is still a regular part of Dogtown today. The event calendar has Blues Co., a five-piece blues and rock band from Blacksburg, scheduled for October 23.

The following night, The Skeleton Crew will be playing Grateful Dead songs, and there’s no admission charge for that show. Dogtown also has trivia on Thursdays and an open mic on Sundays.

Planning a Visit to Floyd

Dogtown Roadhouse is located at 302 South Locust Street in Floyd, Virginia, not far from the Blue Ridge Parkway. Its posted winter hours are Thursday from 4 to 9 p.m., Friday from 4 to 11 p.m., Saturday from noon to 11 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 8 p.m.

There’s more music just down the street at the Floyd Country Store, which holds its Friday Night Jamboree every week. The event starts at 6:30 p.m. and includes traditional Appalachian music and dancing, with musicians sometimes playing outside during the warmer months.