Gentleman Jim’s

Gentleman Jim’s is DishingPizza‘s last in a quintet of Maryland-style DMV pizzeria reviews.¹ Like its Maryland-style brethren, Gentleman Jim’s has a rich history that began with the 1940s-era Cavalier Restaurant on 14th Street, NW in DC. The restaurant relocated northward to Twinbrook, Maryland in the 1960s. Jim Hance bought it in 1970, renamed it Gentleman Jim’s,² and subsequently relocated to its present Gaithersburg, Maryland location. The establishment has passed down to three generations of Hances.

DishingPizza dined on a Saturday off-hour. Although Gentleman Jim’s wasn’t crowded, it served a steady stream of grizzled older folks sporting an above-average collection of camo. Vietnam Vets comprise approximately a third of Montgomery County’s 33,000 veterans, yet Gaithersburg isn’t a veteran mecca. Still, Jim Hance took over in 1970, the height of the Vietnam War. Gentleman Jim’s original customer base and the Vietnam generation are the same.

The low-key, friendly vibe at Gentleman Jim’s is a comforting respite after recent forays to fancier, less welcoming DC pizzerias. Although DishingPizza only has eyes for pizza³, Gentleman Jim’s has an impressively large menu and pays attention to quality. Nice to see that Gentleman Jim’s keeps up with the times.

Although pizza isn’t the voluminous menu’s only attraction, the “World Famous Cavalier Style Pizza” is the star of the show. Despite Gentleman Jim’s 50-year Sisyphean struggle to push the Cavalier Style boulder up the mountain, it never took as a bona fide pizza style beyond Gentleman Jim’s four walls. With a couple of exceptions to the Maryland-style standard, Gentleman Jim’s pizza is a Maryland-style subspecies.

The most interesting aspect of the Gentleman Jim’s history is the provenance of its slant-walled cast iron pizza pans, in which the pizzas are baked and served. According to the Gentleman Jim’s lore, the pans in use today date back to the original 1940s Cavalier Restaurant. Not only are the pizza pans museum pieces, but they produce crusts shaped like the gilted frames surrounding Louvre masterpieces.

Still life with mushrooms, circa 2026 (l), Mona Lisa on dough, on loan from the Cavalier collection (r)

DishingPizza awards points for uniqueness: the pans produce a buttery, flaky crust and the thick triangular cornicione of the corner pieces is crisp, tasty, and unusual. The other surprise is their signature cheese – Swiss cheese instead of mozzarella. While the prospect of Swiss instead of mozzarella might cause 19th-century Neopolitans to roll in their tombas, it’s a reminder for the rest of us that decent pizza needn’t require abject fealty to big-mozzarella.

DishingPizza, a non-Maryland native, is hard-pressed to imagine a tomato sauce worse than what’s slathered onto Maryland-style pizza–slightly sweet, watery, metallic, canned, with an onion and garlic powder aftertaste. Ledo’s and Gentleman Jim’s sauces are so similar, It’s almost as if the two joints dip their ladles into the same industrial tomato sauce drum. Native Marylanders raised on this slop think it’s the bee’s knees – each to their own.

One should temper expectations for pizza like Gentleman Jim’s, priced at $.07 per square inch – among the least expensive in the DMV. So what if Gentleman Jim’s pizza doesn’t equal those costing three times more? Gentleman Jim’s is clean, friendly, inexpensive, and lacks pretension. In the chi-chi DMV, old school pizza joints are a dying breed and worthy of patronage.

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Gentleman Jim’s
18257 Flower Hill Way, Gaithersburg, MD 20879

Style: Maryland

Pizza quality: 🍕🍕
Overall experience: ⭐⭐⭐

Pie (16″ square): $19.00
Pie price per square inch: $0.07

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1. DishingPizza previously reviewed the other four: Ledo, Four Corners Pub, Stained Glass Pub, and Continental. DishingPizza hates to toot its own horn, but DishingPizza is an expert in this unfortunate Maryland pizza style. ↩︎
2. Unclear if Gentleman Jim’s is named after Jim, the owner, and/or 19th-century boxer “Gentleman” Jim Corbett, bestowed this nickname by the media because of his refined manners, elegant style of dress, and polite, educated demeanor. ↩︎
3. Despite its single-minded focus, DishingPizza needs roughage and attests that the Raspberry Harvest Salad is superb. ↩︎