A new pizza joint has set up shop on Congress Street in downtown Tucson and has yet to disappoint. Empire Pizza and Pub opened over the summer to feed the hungry masses downtown. While the pub part hasn’t yet been fulfilled — the owners are waiting for their liquor license to be approved — they’ve definitely got pizza down.

Offering an array of pizzas, wings, salads, subs and desserts, Empire has a little bit of everything. Grab a cheese slice for $2.50 or a whole pizza for between $13 and $21. With everything from your traditional cheese to pesto pizzas, Empire features a wide variety of flavors to tantalize your taste buds.

The restaurant lives up to its slogan, “”the best of New York without the attitude.”” The pizza crust isn’t the very best, but it gets the job done. The red sauce is a nice blend of sweet and savory, and they are generous with the cheese. My dinner date, David, and I stuck to traditional flavors on our visit — cheese and pepperoni — and weren’t disappointed. For twenty bucks we got two bottled sodas, two nice-sized slices of pizza, a large salad to share and an order of a dozen barbeque wings.

Service was fast, food was good and the staff is fantastically friendly. You can dine outside or sit in what will be the bar area. Empire is clean and nice, not your local grease ball pizza joint by any means. Because of its great hours, you can visit Empire anytime. They open daily at 11 a.m. and stay open until 10 p.m. on weekdays. But never fear — on weekends, you can get your Empire fix until 3 a.m. They deliver, too. What’s not to like?

Empire Pizza and Pub is a welcome addition to the downtown restaurant scene. When the bar is up and running, Empire will be the one-stop shop for pizza and a beer downtown. Empire does it right by keeping things simple; it doesn’t need all the bells and whistles of fancy pizza joints. Empire has good pizza, a great selection of toppings and does the simple stuff right.