Larry Olmsted

Special to USA TODAY

The scene: Over the past few years, Great American Bites has visited a lot of new or rapidly growing fast-food operations, and we’ve seen two recurring trends, both good ones. First, many newcomers are focusing more on ingredient quality and sourcing, from the grass-fed, drug-free beef at the Elevation Burger chain to the nation’s first certified organic drive-through fast-food restaurant, Florida’s mini-chain Grown. Second, we’ve seen more food freshly cooked to order for every customer in fast and efficient ways, especially when it comes to the assembly-line approach taken by semi-gourmet pizza chains Blaze and 800 Degrees. These two trends converge perfectly at fast-growing Oath Pizza, which now has a dozen locations in Massachusetts, New York City, Washington, D.C., and Virginia, and is about to open in suburban Philadelphia. Oath’s biggest differentiator is its Certified Humane status. The seal of approval is given by the nonprofit Humane Farm Animal Care, the leading such organization, and covers all the meats at Oath – which claims to be the first and only pizzeria in the country to be Certified Humane.

Oath is set up very much like a traditional fast-food eatery where you order at the counter, dispense your own soda and take a seat, but in many ways they have taken great efforts to de-fast food the look and feel. The stores are sleek and modern with whimsical art and signage, concrete floors and blond wood walls and benches, giving them a clean, streamlined Nordic look. The newest locations, like New York’s Upper West Side store which opened two months ago, boast a signature centerpiece – a freestanding hydroponic growing system, sort of a glassed-in vertical greenhouse in the middle of the space, with shelves filled to the brim with basil plants. Every day, basil grown in-house is chopped for use on the pizzas. It’s an impressive touch and the theme continues with a glass wall on the counter, behind which customers can see all the possible topping ingredients, the entire assembly process, and the custom conveyor belt ovens that cook a pizza in just a couple of minutes.

Reason to visit: Creatively topped pizzas, Forager salad

The food: The backbone of the Oath operation is their signature crust, which has developed a cult following. It is all made at a central bakery facility for the chain, and is grilled (you can see the stripes) then seared in avocado oil, then frozen and shipped to the stores, where it is defrosted for each day’s use. When you order they pull out a full round crust, cut it in half if you are ordering a half-pizza, top it, and finish cooking it in the oven. It is a very thin crust, so much so that before final cooking it is semi-translucent in the center, though it has a pronounced raised outer edge. The avocado oil results in the crust being a little bit oily, but in a good way that becomes addictive – especially the outside crust, which is really buttery and compelling.

Because there is the one basic crust (there is also a less-attractive-looking gluten-free option), it is the toppings that really make Oath. They pull out all the stops, in terms of both quantity and quality. Not just Certified Humane, the toppings are also top-shelf in other ways. Both the sausage and pulled pork are from Niman Ranch, the same pork products used at many top-tier fine dining establishments. But if you go the DIY route, the array of options is bewildering: You first choose size (whole or half), then sauce (tomato, basil pesto, truffle or roasted cherry tomato), then toppings from four kinds of cheese to seven types of meat to more than 15 veggie options. As if that is not enough, there are then a dozen drizzles and garnishes, from Sriracha to chili oil to ranch dressing to wild Italian oregano. The set price ($7 half, $11 whole) includes any of these you want.

But lots of folks opt for the house signature pizzas, the bestselling of which are the Whole Hog for meat lovers (roasted cherry tomato sauce, mozzarella, roasted Vidalia onions, Niman Ranch sausage and pulled pork, bacon and chili oil) or the Walley for veggie fans (basil pesto sauce, mozzarella, baby spinach, tomatoes, feta cheese and roasted garlic). Even though the crust is quite good, the plain pie at Oath was blasé, so while a classic New York pizzeria plain slice sometimes hits the spot, here you want toppings, and the more the merrier. Much to my pork-loving surprise, my favorite was not the Whole Hog (it came in second) but the Spicy Mother Clucker, with mozzarella, pickled red onions, spicy chicken, Sriracha drizzle, spicy aioli drizzle and scallions. It was spicy as promised and really good.

The signature pizzas and the toppings sound more like something you would find at a gourmet wood-fired pizzeria, and that’s the beauty of Oath. You get a greatly elevated take on fast-food pizza that doesn’t taste like fast food. The pizzas are light, and while a lot of people would be satisfied with a half, its entirely possible to polish off a whole here solo. I suggest splitting two wholes for two to three people.

The pizza is the main event, but the salads, tossed to order in front of you in a big stainless steel bowl, were surprisingly good, and one reason is that they have amazing crouton strips, made out of pizza dough, that are delicious and plentiful. There are basically two salads, a simple green one and the Forager, which changes seasonally but only slightly (fall adds cauliflower), with a basic mix of lettuces, white beans, grape tomatoes, red onions, vinaigrette and lots of the secret recipe croutons. They then hand-grate real Grana Padano cheese over the top, not the fake stuff that comes in green cardboard tubes. It’s a delicious salad in big portions. Even the self-serve draft soda is elevated here, from Stubborn Soda, a brand that uses agave syrup and offers up funky flavors like Pineapple Cream (my favorite), Black Cherry Tarragon, and Orange Hibiscus.

Oath delivers tasty pizza in an amazing array of variations for a reasonable price, does it quickly and with a smile, and in a way that is guilt-free. That’s a lot of reason to give it a try.

Pilgrimage-worthy?: No.

Rating: Yum! (Scale: Blah, OK, Mmmm, Yum!, OMG!)

Price: $-$$ ($ cheap, $$ moderate, $$$ expensive)

Details: Twelve locations with the most in greater Boston, then New York City, then Washington, D.C./Virginia and greater Philadelphia; oathpizza.com

Larry Olmsted has been writing about food and travel for more than 15 years. An avid eater and cook, he has attended cooking classes in Italy, judged a barbecue contest and once dined with Julia Child. Follow him on Twitter, @TravelFoodGuy, and if there's a unique American eatery you think he should visit, send him an email at travel@usatoday.com. Some of the venues reviewed by this column provided complimentary services.