Photo: Michael Macor/The Chronicle
Following the openings of Teleferic Barcelona and Rooftop Restaurant & Bar in the second and top floors of developer Brian Hirahara’s latest project, Tony Gemignani of North Beach’s popular Tony’s Pizza Napoletana will launch a Slice House on the ground floor this Friday (May 27). Gemignani has about 15 other pizza concepts mostly in northern California, including four other Slice Houses, but this is the Fremont native’s first East Bay outpost.
We chatted with Gemignani—fresh from becoming the first American to win top prize in the Pizza In Pala division at the 25th annual World Pizza Championships in Parma, Italy—about his latest project.
First of all, congratulations on the Pizza Championships.
Thanks. That was really awesome, I’ve never won in the north before. I’ve been going for 17 years and competing in the cooking competition for 13 years. I was actually thinking of not going this year, my wife didn’t want me to go, but a the last minute I was like, ‘I’ve got this idea and I think I can pull it off.’ So I’m glad I didn’t listen to my wife [laughs].
What was the winning pizza?
It was a 7-grain dough with double sprouted grains and two different flours, and then I picked up all these different ingredients from all over Italy—wild boar prosciutto from San Gimignano, two different types of mozzarella, tomatoes from Rome, volcanic black salt. It was a combination of U.S. ingredients and Italian ingredients. I named it [the “Don Giovanni”] after my son.
It seems like there’s more interest these days in alternative grains…
Well, you look at the Second Street Slice House [in San Francisco], we have a multigrain dough. We also have a four-grain pizza at Tony’s. I’ve always experimented with sprouted grains and there’s not too many pizzerias doing that. In Italy, there’s a real renaissance in multigrains—not as much in the U.S. though.
I’m also working with ancient grains. I’m 42 now and I think I’m looking for something that’s a little healthier. Plus, I’ve been making pizza for 25 years so I get a little bored using the same ingredients all the time.
Why did you decide to open a Slice House out in Walnut Creek?
I think that particular location, right at the corner of Diablo Boulevard and Main Street is pretty nice, being right across from Tiffany’s and Neiman Marcus. That building has also attracted some cool independent operators, including a group from Barcelona that just opened a tapas place, Teleferic. Walnut Creek is pretty awesome these days and a great city needs great pizza.
There are a lot of different pizza spots opening in Walnut Creek—what sets yours apart?
I’m not too familiar with the other pizza places, but when you look at our concept of Slice House, it’s actually much more than what it sounds like. We have housemade pasta being made from an extruder imported from Italy. We brought our own starter from San Francisco and I doubt anyone else is using starter for their dough. We’re making sausage links with our own meat grinder and we’ll be casing Calabrese and sweet fennel sausages—we’re doing a lot of made-from-scratch items there that I don’t think anyone else is doing.
For pizza, we have a Siciliian style, Grandma-style, New York style, San Francisco style. We’ll have a housemade chili that we’ve been working on in San Francisco for the past five weeks, we have scratch soups, cold-pressed juices, a beautiful espresso machine with Cafe Roma and Trieste coffee from North Beach. We also have nice wings and salads.
I was looking around at Walnut Creek and I saw business men and women who seemed like they wanted more than just a slice, so this place is set up a little different from any other location. It’s probably most similar to our Second Street location, but there’s more here. We’ll also have beer and wine and we’re getting some outdoor seating approved. [Note: There are also two secret menu items: disco fries and chili fries].
What’s the key to a good pizza?
It’s all about balance, between the dough, the sauce, the cheese, and any other ingredients. Each bite should take you for a journey. There should be three to four different flavor profiles, but nothing that’s overly complex—it should all intermarry with each other.
Are you working on any other places?
People can expect a pretty big expansion, mostly focused on the Pizza Rock restaurants, which we’ve opened in Sacramento and Las Vegas. Expect to hear about that pretty soon.
Slice House in Walnut Creek will be open daily for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
1500 Mt. Diablo Blvd., Walnut Creek. (925) 448-8077. slicehousewalnutcreek.com