Scheme Restaurant & Bar

This place rocks! My wife is from Salina and we live in Texas now, but we get back into Salina a couple of times a year if we can. We usually visit family here at Christmas time, and there is almost always a Scheme Pizza day. This year was no exception. Instead of ordering our pies to go, this time we made reservations for the whole family and as usual The Scheme delivered the greatest restaurant pizza and service on the planet! Seriously heavy heapings of incredibly fresh and delicious toppings on pretty thick yet somehow crispy and tasty crust!
Wait staff is remarkably efficient, friendly, and courteous.
The décor is retro-1970’s rock-​n-​roll as is the greatest pop/​rock music collection this side of the mighty Mississippi.
Pizza like this takes a little time, and this little place is popular so call ahead to see if you can make reservations should you plan to dine in. This place is so worth it!

My five star rating is based on the quality /​flavor of the pizza. In my work as a pilot, I have traveled almost every state in the USA trying 100s of different pizza restaurants and this is absolutely the best I’ve ever had. I found this place in the mid-​1980s while touring with my band after a tip from a local resident. Since then, I stop through Salina any chance I get to have this pizza. When I lived in Kansas City I would happily spend several hundred dollars in fuel to fly to Salina for a fix. It was only about an hour flight. Now that I live in Louisiana it’s not as easy but I think I have a craving for it at some point every day.
You’ll notice that most of the negative reviews concern service. It’s true that the service has been inconsistent and apathetic at times but it’s never been terrible or especially unfriendly in my experience. There always has been a bit of an attitude to the place that says «This is the way we do things and if you don’t like it, go elsewhere». Yes — Your pizza is going to take 45min to an hour to make. Yes — you will eat off of a styrofoam plate. Yes — you will likely need reservations because the place is damn popular, especially Friday/​Saturday. Yes — the décor looks like the inside of a hunting lodge. No –They don’t take credit/​debit cards. Yes– they only serve pizza. No– the place is not especially «kid-​friendly». Yes — they are only open Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Yes — the music is loud. Fans and regulars of The Scheme accept all this because YES, the pizza is that freakin’ good.
Every ingredient is exceptional and would be delicious on it’s own. Fresh meat and veggies. Plenty of cheese. Kind of a sweet sauce. The crust is not exactly thin but it is crisp and some folks like to put honey on the leftover crust and eat it like breadsticks. The pizzas are filling. They are piled with ingredients and weigh a ton so no wonder it takes so long to cook — it’s a simple matter of physics.
To the previous reviewer who begged the owners to take their advice to «lay off the cheese and put the toppings on before the cheese», I have a suggestion for a pizza place you might like. It’s called … Almost Every Other Pizza Place In The Country. If there’s anything that does NOT need changing at the Scheme, it’s the pizza recipe.
Update 8÷13÷2015 — I flew into Salina today for a Scheme pizza. I got there as soon as the doors opened and the owner’s wife (I think) was there when I walked in. She has always been friendly but was especially so today. The rest of the staff that came on duty today were super attentive and super friendly. I never ran out of drink or had to wait for anything other than that perfect pizza to cook. The pizza was worth the wait as usual.

the best pizza in town hands down the crust is delicious and the toppings always fresh and tasty. the service is above and beyond. he atmosphere and historical décor can keep you busy for hours just reading it. The owner is very pleasant and friendly we thoroughly enjoy eating here and do so every opportunity we have.
They are cash only but in case your forget there are close by ATM machines.

This place, honestly, could be the best food experience in Salina, or one of the best restaurants in the state – if they just cared about service, if they just cared about being open regular hours, if they just cared about bringing the salads up to the level of the pizza. They’ll close up early if no one is around. My father used to say «anyone that eats before eight is a barbarian.» They’re turning the music up loud to get you out the door by eight. Pizza tastes better later in the night. What bums me so is that this place has the potential to be great. If they just cared.

This is a hard review to do and this shows the staff can really take down the ratings. The food would be a 5 star, the time it took to get refills on drinks, our check, pay the check, the food (55 min) took this down to 2.5 star. The price on the pizza is higher and I would not mind paying the price, but would expect real plates or at least nice thick ones, due to needing to use a fork to eat the pizza. The pizza it’s self was good and a small pizza will feed 3 people and large 4 – 5. The crust is homemade and crisp for it being thick. Sauce is homemade and not the sweet stuff you get at Hut or Johns. The beef, sausage and all topping are very good quality.
Call ahead and reservation are definitely needed. Bring cash or a check, do debit cards?
To the owners: Get better grade of plastic plates, some type of appetizer due to the wait on the pizza and might think about debit or credit cards especially due to one of the pizza’s being at $ 45.

Well the pizza is amazing, but you have to have a lot of patience. After asking on multiple times for our check, we resorted to going to the register and found that our waitress stopped everything to visit with her friends (who were picking up their to go order). As this was only one example of the level of service they offer, I recommend taking a page from the friends and getting it to go.

Food was good. Really good in fact. However, Scheme’s gets 2 stars from me because of everything else. When you walk in the atmosphere is very unwelcoming. It was our first time there and we had out of town guests. Because you have to have a reservation on the weekends, your table is reserved, so no one greets you and assists you. The server was inconvenienced by our questions (Also no menu or beer menu for new people) and not really interested in making us feel welcomed or comfortable. When we asked for a high-​chair for our toddler, she shrugged her shoulders and was really annoyed in helping us with that request and even suggested that we probably couldn’t’ use one because it was in her way. Once we ordered our food, drinks took a long time to arrive and our salads were not timely or appropriately served. We waited 45 minutes for our food. That’s a really long time even if you’re busy on a weekend. The price is significantly uneven to the quality of the product. If I’m paying $ 25 for a pizza, I would expect the service and speed to be better. Point being, the food was good, but most certainly not worth the price, wait, and unwelcoming environment There are plenty of other excellent pizza places in Salina that are way cheaper, faster and honestly just as good. Try Blue Sky Brewery on Santa Fe street if my suggestion.

The Scheme is amazing, if a little bit quirky.
Definitely call ahead for a table, and consider pre-​ordering your pizza. If you don’t call ahead you may not get a seat, and if you don’t pre-​order be prepared to wait a while. Just give yourself plenty of time to sit and have a drink and relax while you wait for your pizza.
The Scheme only accepts cash or check, so make sure you stop by the atm.
If you can accept the quirks of cash/​check only, making reservations or calling ahead, and waiting a long time for pizza, this is the best place in town. Rather than being the kind of place where you run in for a pizza and beer it is the kind of place where you really relax and savor the pizza and beer experience. We lovingly refer to it as «Elitist Pizza,» and we love it!

the pizza is pretty good. not fantastic, not groundbreaking, but good. the atmosphere is okay. the prices are NOT okay. this pizza is way over-​priced. my suggestion is, if you want good pizza in Salina Kansas at a much more reasonable price, go to Big Cheese.

This is one of those restaurants that have a lot of rules. Want a menu? No. Draft beer other than Blue Moon? Nope. How about an appetizer while you wait for your pizza? Denied. A specialty pizza with one ingredient removed? Sorry. A table without a reservation on a Fri/​Sat night? Maybe. Pay with your debit card. Not happening. The positives are a very friendly wait staff and the décor is fun. They were quick to replace beers, but a little slow on the soda. We have been there twice. The pizza was really good the first time, the second time it was pretty black on the bottom. Also, we had two onions on our pizza that were big thick slices, rather than being broken down into rings. It was a little much. I like the honey for the crust and that they use different colored sweet peppers, instead of green.

This is essentially a large, cozy, western style pub. At dinner they only serve pizza and beer. For lunch they throw in sandwiches.
Excellent New York style pizza. Two larges for 5 of us, including 2 football players who just finished a game and we had ¾ of a pie left over.
The crust is so good, they put honey on each table. Never done that, but it works.
Only weird note: We walked in and only one table was occupied. The waitress asked if we had a reservation. We thought she was joking, but sure enough there were little yellow «reserved» cards on 75% of the tables. We found an open one, but during the hour+ we were there only 4 other patrons walked in the door. Never seen a pizza pub require reservations; must be a local thing.
Service okay. Basically 2 gals running the place. Order seemed to take a while in that others were receiving their pizza 10 – 15 mins before we got our 2. Maybe they had reservations — haha.
If we do this again, we’ll order pick up and avoid the sit-​down experience like 70% of their customers seemed to do while we were there.

Scheme does have really good pizza. I enjoy going there (as long as I’m not paying), but it seems to be the kind of place that people love or hate. The wait staff is terrible!!! It is a family run business, and everyone is related, so I’m sure that no one is getting fired for treating customers badly! If you are wanting to drink multiple beers, sit at the bar because you probably will only see your waitress 3 times the whole night! Make sure you bring cash, they only charge 35 dollars for a pizza, so they can’t afford to give up the 3% it would cost them to take a debit card… Be sure to make reservations as well! The place is busy, and seating is limited. I rate the pizza 4.5 stars and the rest of the experience 1 star.

The best is the Pizza and I come only for this nothing else and recommended this place to all my friends to have a try for tasty Pizza.

I love pizza. I love all kinds of pizza: Chicago, NY, brick oven, Neopolitan, California, Mr. Gatti’s, whatever! I love pizza. I worked at three pizza places in my poorer years and I think I’m a pretty good judge of quality. That said, I admit, this place left me confused.
There’s no questioning the quality of the ingredients. Real mushrooms, not canned. Exquisite meats, fresh veggies! The crust was good, the cheese of high quality, but when put all together… I don’t know, I’m thinking car crash.
Pizza is all about proportions. A good pizza uses the finest ingredients in the right proportions. This place seems to ascribe to the more-​is-​better philosophy. I ordered one of the specialty pizzas with sausage and onion, mushrooms and hamburger I think. WAYYYYY too much cheese, and all dumped right in the middle of the pie. I spooned it off. The mushrooms, fresh if you recall, were cut as thick as my little finger, and so tasted raw, which indeed they were. The sausage was cut lengthwise and dropped on top after the cheese so when you bit into it you got the entire piece. Folks, the cheese is supposed to hold it all together. That’s it’s function. The hamburger was a lot like small meat balls. All in all, everything was just too much or too big, except the crust, which was Goldie Locks (just right, but not very tasty).
***Owners, please, take my suggestion. Lay off the cheese; cut the veggies thinner/​smaller, let the flavors cook into the pie; halve the size of the meat toppings, they’re a bite or more on their own. Hell, you’ll save money AND you’ll make a better pizza. And please, please, put the toppings on before the cheese. It’s like you want me to see that we’re getting our money’s worth or something. Trust me, if it tastes good, no one will give a rat’s @$$ what it looks like. And perhaps most importantly, take your time making the individual pies. Spread the cheese evenly all the way to the edge. Make sure it doesn’t glop up in the middle.

I grew up in this pizza shop and in all these years, they have yet to disappoint. The pizza topping are fresh and diverse and they have honey on the table to drizzle on the crust. Walk in the front door and you are transformed to a classic western saloon with rustic wooden booths and game trophies on the wall.
A fun and tasty experience.

The atmosphere of this place is great for such a small town. It felt like a cool restaurant I would go to back home in Atlanta. The pizza’s excellent but a little greasy. A 12 inch pie will leave you with a couple of extra slices because they’re so thick. Using the honey on the leftover crust is a must. Be prepared to wait awhile for the food because they do take their time making the pizza. However, while you wait, they do seem to have a decent selection of craft beers and some interesting pieces of décor to check out.
Cash or check only!

This rather dive-​y place is definitely worth getting off I-​70 for. It is much like an oasis through some possibly deserted streets (it was about 9pm on a Saturday night and we didn’t see a single other car out). The bf and I rolled up absolutely starving just as the kitchen was closing… except they let us sneak our order in. We split a large Italian sausage, olives and bell peppers pizza that was phenomenal! Five stars on the pizza all the way — tons of toppings, four different types of mozzarella cheeses from Minnesota, just the right amount of sauce and yummy pretzel crust that tastes great with some honey drizzled on it (just trust me on this one). This place makes great pizza!
I had to take off a star for the lack of beer selection (blue moon is the only beer in tap) and the small menu (if you come here for dinner, be prepared to only order pizza). Other than that, I appreciated the eclectic mix of decorations and the staff was very friendly. If I ever find myself back in Salina I will be sure to stop in here again!

Thank you Unilocal!After scouring reviews for a place to grab dinner while in town for the night, I decided I’d brave the Scheme, despite some of the foreboding comments I read.
Man, awfully glad I did.
How awfully glad? Like «my stomach hurts from eating an entire pizza» kind of awfully glad. (It was a small pizza, but that doesn’t make it any less gluttonous!)
Amazing doesn’t begin to subscribe the pizza here. Crust that is crispy but not thin, evenly applied premium toppings, just the right amount of subtle sauce. THIS is what good pizza tastes like. Italian sausage was sliced instead of crumbled. Garlic was in small bits of chopped cloves (not that refrigerated minced stuff). Cheese was amply applied, but not overpowering.
A small was way too much for me to try to tackle alone (which didn’t stop me from trying) and set me back $ 12 base price plus $ 1.75 a topping.
I called in my order as I assumed from the reviews here that I would never get a seat. The restaurant was only half full when I arrived at 6:45 pm though — I could have probably sat at the bar to eat. Instead I took it back to my hotel where it was still piping hot despite the freezing temperatures.
The staff couldn’t have been nicer… everyone I talked to while picking up and paying was pleasant.
This is my new «go to» place when I’m in Salina overnight… but only after I lose the two pounds I just put on from a single pizza!

Scheme gets pretty busy. Locals love this place. When we go to Salina, it is a must to stop by.
They are only open Thursday — Saturday and if you want to come here… make a reservation. There may be some seating but it is pretty busy… even at the bar.
Scheme is known for their pizza. We love the Dream Pizza. You won’t be disappointed.

Wow, I don’t think my experience could have been more the opposite from those with the more negative reviews.
A friend and I road tripped to Salina on a Saturday night (picked pretty much at random) just to get out out town. We had been hopping around town visiting a couple of taverns and then went to The Scheme for dinner on the recommendation of our cab driver.
Unfortunately we arrived right at closing time, but without hesitation the owners welcomed us in and took care of us.
(The remainder of this review is reprinted from a post on my personal blog about that night.)
«Large pepperoni!» we blurted out, without thinking about the fact that we’d would not be able to take our leftovers back to the motel for a few more hours.
We had some beer and talked with the bartender while we waited for our dinner. She could tell that we were not from around there, so we told her about our bar-​hopping mission. She in turn told the owner, and he came out and started talking with us as well.
I produced my camera to take a few photos only to find my battery dead. The two of them immediately started digging around in various drawers until they found some fresh AA batteries that they donated to the cause.
The pizza arrived, and it was every bit worth the wait. With a braided crust and loaded with cheese, it was mouth-​watering goodness thta we pounded away quickly. Still, as expected, we were only able to eat about half of it so put the rest in a to-​go box.
The owner then gave us the grand tour of the place, which was part bar, part pizza shop, part art museum.
Much of the art and memorabilia had an old-​west theme and largely dealt with the local history — including (if I am remembering all this correctly) a young local girl who wrote to Abe Lincoln and told him more people might vote for him if he grew a beard. Or an old friend of the owner’s ancestors, Wild Bill Hickok and his girlfriend «Big-​Nose» Kate.
We ended up staying and chatting with our hosts for about an hour past closing time before grabbing our leftovers and continuing on with our journey.
— — — — — — — — — — — —
(The rest of this has nothing to do with The Scheme, it’s the story of the tragic and unexpected demise of the other half of our pizza.)
About half an hour after we left The Scheme, an unexpected downpour started. At this point we were on foot, walking from bar to bar in downtown Salina, taking turns tucking our leftover pizza under our arms. The rain was torrential and turned into a flood (I later heard 5″+ fell), and we were out there in it all.
About 2 hours had elapsed, and we were standing on the sidewalk in the rain trying to decide whether to call our cab or try to hit one or two more places before closing time.
Unfortunately we had not realized just how wet the pizza box had become.
The weight shifted.
The sound of wet paper sliding apart.
The sound of a splash as half a pizza plummeted, in slow motion, to the wet sidewalk.
We looked at the pizza, then back at each other, then back to the pizza, then back to each other.
In shock and sorrow, we knelt down and started picking up the soggy goodness, dripping it back into the remains of the box.
«Screw it, it’s pointless» we sighed, and as our hearts sank we tossed the pizza remnants onto a nearby bench and trudged on.
«At least that will make a good meal for a homeless person… if it doesn’t wash away,» I said.
«Yeah, you know what that is?» my buddy asked. «It’s a ‘Bum Feast’. You know, that could make a good band name, ‘Bum Feast’.»
«And the first album could be titled Bum Feast:’ Pizza on the Sidewalk’.»