Thr3e Wise Men is the latest addition to the Broad Ripple pizza scene, just having opened in January. It serves as a tasting room for the brewery that supplies the Scotty's Brewhouse chain with fresh microbrew. Scotty's offices are here too.

Thr3e Wise Men is right across the street from the Broad Ripple McDonald's, in the former home of Sunflower Market. I remember it as the home of Peaches Records in the eighties. The real old-timers will remember it as the A&P grocery.

Walking in, you're greeted by a huge room with a view of the brewing operation, windows overlooking the avenue, and a bar area. The walls are paneled in warm wood and the ceiling is vaulted, giving it a lodge feel. The next thing you'll notice is the seating, mostly giant picnic tables. Is this a bold social experiment, forcing strangers to converse?

I had my doubts at first, but by the time we left, I was a believer. By the way, these are not your standard back yard picnic tables. They're luxury picnic tables with comfortable seating and acrylic glazed tops. Each table has an iPad in the center for viewing Scotty's content. The tables are great for large groups. It seemed that smaller groups were able to happily coexist at the tables too.

Why the name? The owner, Scotty Wise, has two partners - his sons aged four and eight.

Beerwise (that would make a great name for Scotty Wise's next venture, wouldn't it?), there were eight microbrews offered. We chose samplers (choice of three six ounce samples) to start. I was most impressed with the Hubbard & Cravens Porter, but need to return for future research. Refillable half-gallon growlers are also available, for craft brewed beer to go.

Pizzawise (I won't say it), the menu is very simple. There are no house specialties; you just order what you want. There's only one crust style too, but you get to pick the size. Extra meat toppings are $2.50 each, extra vegetable toppings $1.50 each. I never understood why more pizza places don't discount the veggies. Call me radical, but onions should be free! What caught my eye was the two kinds of sausage - sweet Italian and spicy Italian. We ordered the first pie with half sweet sausage, the other half spicy. Our second pizza was pepperoni and olive.

Besides pizza, the "m3nu" includes salads, desserts and appetizers, such as breadsticks, wings and loaded potato chips. The tables are supplied with fresh hot popcorn, while you quaff your beer or wait for your food order.

When the pizzas arrived, we could easily see the dividing line between sweet and spicy sausage. The sweet sausage had larger chunks, and the spicy a more golden color. The crusts were hand-crafted and very thin. They were crisp on the outside, less so in the middle. The sauce was slightly sweet, but had a spicy kick to it. To my taste, the sweet sausage, was too bland. The spicy lived up to its name, and was the clear winner. On the second pizza, the pepperoni was giant, maybe four inches in diameter (anybody remember Shakey's?). The toppings were generous on both pizzas.

I don't know if it was the weather, but there must have been fifteen or more servers swarming around when we were there, so service was very attentive. Based on the full house we saw on a Thursday night, Scotty has found a most welcome home in Broad Ripple.