Miami is now a pizza town. These four new spots are proof
On the other side of the pandemic, there is pizza.
Square pizza, sourdough pizza, naturally leavened pizza, New York style pizza.
The disruption of shuttered restaurants brought Miami a bounty of pies. They came from chefs who were suddenly laid off or empty restaurants rethinking fine dining. They found a city full of diners looking for comfort in red sauce.
What started as pandemic pop-ups have, two years on, led to permanent and prospering shops that have improved Miami’s pizza options.
“Pizza was definitely the food of the pandemic,” said David Foulquier, who turned his successful Fooq’s restaurant downtown into Eleventh Street Pizza.
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Miami had never been considered a pizza paradise. People had their favorites, if they were not enough to win over visiting New Yorkers: Steve’s and Frankie’s and Cassola’s. And we had delicate, artisanal gems with devoted followings: Mister O-1 Extraordinary Pizza, tucked in a Miami Beach office building, Harry’s Pizzeria from renowned chef Michael Schwartz.
And we had imports like Brooklyn’s Lucali in Sunset Harbour.
But in the last two years, South Florida locals took it upon themselves to add to Miami’s pizza scene — some out of necessity, some seeing opportunity.
“I don’t think there’s anything more comforting than going to a pizza place with your family and talking over pizza and beer,” said Carlos Estarita, who opened Vice City Pizza first as a pop-up inside Abi Maria in Downtown Dadeland.
These are four of our favorite pizza shops to grow out of the pandemic.
Eleventh Street Pizza
David Foulquier’s pandemic gamble has taken off.
When the early days of the coronavirus made it impossible to safely run his intimate Persian-French restaurant Fooq’s, where he was named a Forbes 30-under-30 restaurateur, he started baking pizza instead. He called the pop-up Eleventh Street, named for the downtown street it borders. They hired Aquiles Bisogni, a 29-year veteran of Joe’s Pizza on Carmine Street in Greenwich Village who had retired to South Florida, to teach them the ropes.
Eleventh Street used only naturally leavened sourdough starter, high quality ingredients like Bianco DiNapoli San Marzano tomatoes, and thoughtful toppings like GiAntonio Pepperoni from Ezzo Sausage Co., and homemade garlic confit and porcini mushroom Alfredo sauce.
He offered two styles of pizzas: what he called “neo New York style” and square Sicilian pies that feed six.
And for that, he commanded Lucali prices, ranging from $28-$42. He sold out his 30-40 daily pies within hours.
That has led to a sit-down service, including a selection of low-intervention wines. And they have started opening late into the night.
He knows diners, especially in a near-recession, might hesitate at the price. So he will start offering smaller pizzas, serving 2-3, for those who don’t want to invest in an enormous pie.
“The pizza business is a hustle. It’s pinching pennies,” he said. “More good pizza, priced at what good pizza should be priced at, is good for everyone.”
Eleventh Street is set to open a second location in Downtown Dadeland.
Address: 1035 N. Miami Ave., downtown Miami
Hours: 4 p.m. to midnight, Tuesday-Thursday, until 2 a.m. Friday. Noon-2 a.m., Saturday, until 10 p.m. Sunday.
More info: EleventhStreetPizza.com, 786-536-2749
Coming in September: 9025 SW 72nd Place, Kendall
Old Greg’s Pizza
Greg Tetzner and Jackie Richie’s pizza went Instagram famous during the pandemic. That was by design.
The couple had been working toward opening a pizza restaurant when the pandemic hit — they already had a logo and social media handle. Rather than scrap the idea, they powered through, selling square pizza out of their apartment (in a home oven rigged with pizza stones), all via Instagram. Tetzner used the pizza skills he’d learned working under some of Miami’s best chefs, like Schwartz and Ghee’s Niven Patel, not to mention making dough at El Bagel across the street from their house. Richie used the contacts she’d built as a publicist.
Tetzner’s square pizza filled Instagram feeds to the point many people didn’t realize Old Greg’s was a pop-up, not an actual restaurant.
They kept the buzz going until they opened their dream pizza spot after two years, in January 2022.
Now they make two spectacular kinds of pies, both from that two-year-old mother sourdough they nicknamed Old Greg.
The massive 20-inch round pies pull apart delicately, with a toasty crisp. On the other end, each slice of their square pie is a meal in itself. Toppings range from marinated and house-pickled vegetables to imported pepperoni with hot honey.
Don’t miss the selection of bomboloni, a kind of Italian jelly doughnut with changing fillings, like tiramisu.
Address: 3620 NE Second Ave., Midtown
Hours: 5-10 p.m., Monday, Thursday, Friday. Opening at 3 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. Pizza by the slice 3-5 p.m., Saturday-Sunday.
More info: OldGregsPizza.com. 866-653-4734
Miami Slice
Alejandro Díaz moved to Miami in 2019, ready to build on his success with Caracas restaurants.
But shortly after he and partners Alberto Zanetti and José Cárdenas bought La Latina in Midtown, selling two dozen different kinds of Venezuelan arepas and empanadas, the pandemic threatened to derail their idea of quickly opening a new pizza restaurant. Instead, they used the slow business to develop a New York style pizza recipe from La Latina’s kitchen. They called it Miami Slice and sold it all on Instagram, scheduling orders a week out with drive-through pickup behind the restaurant.
“We were speakeasy pizza,” he joked. “It was a line of cars coming through the alley.”
Díaz first moved to the United States to study at the University of Denver, where he played Division I soccer on scholarship. But it was working in New York City later where he learned to love the pizza. With the help of another set of partners, he turned that love into Pizza Caracas after he went home in 2007.
In Miami, pizza lovers fell in love with his New York style pies, the dough cold-fermented for more than three days to gain its sourdough flavor. Swirls of pesto on his La Salsera, interspersed with marinara and vodka sauce, are mesmerizing. He combined flavors like leeks and bacon on other pies. And the slight crunch to what he calls artisanal with “New York style DNA” made instant fans. Every slice is like a work of art. Similar to Old Greg’s, Díaz’s spouse, who co-founded online site The Hungry Post, helped spread the word about the pies.
New York-sized individual slices range from $4.75 to $8.50. Whole pies range from $29-$48.
Now Miami Slice has its own, separate location with limited hours soon to be expanded. And Miami has another great pizza option.
“We needed a life raft and we were able to craft a pretty solid boat,” Díaz said.
Address: 1335 NE Miami Ct., downtown Miami
Hours: 5-9 p.m., Thursday-Sunday.
More info: MiamiSlicePizza.com
Vice City Pizza
Working at Michy’s, Scarpetta, Zuma and Coya had prepared Carlos Estarita for a life of fine-dining, but not a pandemic.
When he and his spouse, a nurse, suddenly found themselves out of work in Washington, D.C., they started making and eating a lot of homemade pizza — and eating through their savings.
They came home to South Florida, where Estarita considered giving up cooking — until a close friend, Jorgie Ramos, owner of a host of Kendall restaurants like Abi Maria, refused to let Estarita throw away his cooking talent.
Ramos gave Estarita a space at Abi Maria last summer to make his two-day fermented, focaccia-style square pies — light, fluffy slices with fun toppings that reflected Miami’s palate. And they were a hit.
They are not only pizzas with fine quality toppings like Ezzo pepperoni and hot honey, and a mushroom pie with a base of shallots, garlic and truffles that he refuses to alter for any guest. He also has fun with pizza.
There are pies like La Colombiana, with Colombian hot dog slices, homemade pineapple jam, garlic cilantro sauce, bacon and black forest ham. El Cubiche (his parents are Colombian and Cuban) is topped with caja china pork, confit garlic and onions and mojo aioli. And a gluten-free pie is a dead ringer for the real thing. One-offs include a Frito Pie pizza, in which he uses homemade chili made by Mike Mayta of the Citadel food hall’s United States Burger Service, which makes some of the best burgers in the city.
“It’s pizza. It’s not supposed to be serious,” Estarita said. “Granted some are gimmicky, but if they taste good and people enjoy it, I don’t care.”
He has expanded with a huge new oven in Abi Maria and has partnered with Ramos to sign a lease for a new pizza restaurant in the same shopping center as Finka, in West Kendall, where he grew up. He expects it to open by October. Pies range $16-$20 and serve 2-3.
Address: 8860 SW 72nd Pl., inside Abi Maria in Downtown Dadeland
Hours: 5-10:30 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday. Dine-in only on Friday-Saturday.
More info: ViceCityPizza.com
Coming soon: In the Plaza Alegre shopping center on Southwest 26th Street and 147th Avenue.
