The House of Pizza (that is, the “Original House of Pizza” on John C. Calhoun Drive) in Orangeburg, SC, is definitely my favorite. I’m not any kind of pizza connoisseur, but this place has consistently delivered pizza that I loved growing up: Granted, it is thus probably a sentimental favorite. It was a fixture for birthday dinners treated by my aunt and uncle when I was a teenager. It has a large Greek house salad that is good for sharing before the pizza comes. The Coke is exceptionally good (sweet–lots of syrup?). There are a lot of other interesting things on the menu (e.g., souvlaki), but every time I go I have to order a pepperoni and mushroom pizza, which I never regret: It always has lots of cheese and a thin crust. I don’t usually eat the edge of a pizza crust, but I do here. When my wife, who grew up in Orangeburg, and I return home to South Carolina, this is one of several spots we like to visit regularly.
(The others, for other posts, are Dukes BBQ by Fire Station No. 2 and Sub Station II. Also, my wife liked to get boneless chicken from the Chinese food restaurant that used to be an old Hardees across from McDonalds further south on John C Calhoun Dr. With four “must-have” meals out plus whatever my mother had planned to cook for us–hopefully fried chicken–we had to start rotating where we went when we only came down for a weekend.)