There's a little shopping center a couple of miles from where I live. It has a liquor store, an ice cream shop, a bagel shop, and a pizza place.

I think there are other storefronts, but to be honest, we don't spend a lot of time over there.

Which is probably fine by them - it's located across from Framingham State University, so I don't think my family is their target audience.

My point, though, is that the pizza place recently moved...and in its place, another - University Pizza - opened.

We got a menu in the mail this week...and on Saturday, I decided to check it out.

Due to circumstances not worth mentioning here, it was me and my youngest daughter together for dinner Saturday evening.

I decided to call in an order for pickup - one of my go-tos: A bacon cheeseburger.

The first thing I noticed when I got there to pick up was the interior - it looked great. The former pizza shop at that site was kind of dingy. It seemed old. It wasn't exactly dirty...but it felt small and crowded.

University Pizza seems to have expanded the location. I don't know if they took over something next door and knocked down a wall or what...I didn't spend enough time in the other place to know how much bigger this one is. But there are new tables, a new table layout - It definitely seems like it was designed to try to become more of a hangout for the college kids.

I was there a little before 6pm on a Saturday, and there were only a couple of college-aged girls and a family with young kids besides the young staff (who I also imagine come from the college). I'm not sure how long it's been open, but I do know it's open late...so maybe it draws a later crowd.

As for my burger:

That's a pretty big burger. It was a good price (again, catering to the college crowd, which works for me too), and as you can probably tell by looking at it, it was plenty filling. The fries were a touch seasoned, but not overwhelmingly so, which I liked.

So the burger passed my test. When I go to a pizza shop, though, my usual order is a chicken or eggplant parm sub...so that will be next. (I went with the burger this time because I was sold on it in their menu.)

Then it'll be time to test the pizza. There's a thing about New England pizza - it's really thin and greasy. I like thick and doughy pizza. (It's a point of contention between me and my wife, who grew up with the imitation pizza and mistakenly thinks it's superior.) Right now I have one shop nearby that has the pizza I like - everywhere else's is bad.

I'm almost nervous to try University Pizza's pie...because that will be the tell-tale sign of whether we'll be joining the Framingham State kids at University Pizza more often than just for the occasional sub or burger.