Pizza Guide

Your guide to Austin's 11 new pizza restaurants

As the famous quote goes, "It is a truth universally acknowledged that pizza is just wonderful" ... or something like that.

While our tacos have been on point, well, forever, Austin's pizza game has always been hit-or-miss. For every Little Deli there is some sandwich shop warming up frozen pies and calling them homemade. For every Bufalina or Backspace, there is a restaurant serving up chewy dough with lackluster toppings.

Lucky for us, we have at least 11 places that have either recently opened or are slated to make their pie-slingin' debut over the next few months. Lucky for you, we've rounded them up right here for your pleasure.

Numero 28 Pizzeria & Vineria
Downtown
Status: Open
What to expect: Neapolitian-style pies are the specialty at this New York-based chain with locations in New York City, Miami and London. Each pie is wood fired and uses only Italian ingredients.

Lucky's Puccias & Pizzeria
Downtown
Status: Open
What to expect: Though the trailer was famous for its puccias (wood fired, flatbread sandwiches), Lucky's new brick-and-mortar is also serving Neapolitan-style pizzas using its famous dough and topped with Lucky's signature organic ingredients.

Osteria Pronto
Downtown
Status: Open
What to expect: Housed in the newly opened JW Marriott, Osteria Pronto is a brand-new addition to the pizza scene. Offering classic selections (margherita, funghi, etc.), Osteria Pronto says it prides itself on using locally sourced ingredients whenever possible.

Salvation on Rainey Street
Rainey Street
Status: Open
What to expect: New Haven-style pizza made famous by Salvation's campus-area locale, but with an expanded menu of appetizers, salads, sandwiches, calzones and desserts. Since this is Rainey Street, Salvation is serving craft cocktails and offering an expanded beer list, too.

40 North
South First
Status: Open
What to expect: What separates this South First Street trailer from the other wood fired Neapolitan pie purveyors on this list are the unique offerings. The Hot Honey comes with San Marzano tomatoes, hot coppa, ricotta, Parmigiano-Reggiano and Mike's Hot Honey while the Kale pie is topped with fresh mozzarella, house sausage, kale, Calabrian Chiles, garlic and Parmigiano-Reggiano. For the un-adventurous (or those of us who believe cheese pizza is the best pizza), 40 North also offers a Margherita pie.

aRoma
South Lamar
Status: Open
What to expect: Neapolitian pies with classic offerings like marinara, pepperoni and four cheese. Enjoy the simple styles crafted with Italian ingredients or spice them up with interesting additional toppings like truffle oil or a fried egg.

St. Philip Pizzeria + Bake Shop
Sunset Valley
Status: Open
What to expect: A much needed boost to the Sunset Valley restaurant scene, St. Philip is a posh, yet family-friendly neighborhood joint offering pizzas like NYC (pepperoni, red sauce and mozzarella), House Meatball (housemade meatballs, red pepper chutney, fresh ricotta, onion, mozzarella and red sauce) and St. Philip (ricotta, garlic, bacon jam and arugula). Yes, this is a pizza list, but do yourself a favor and get an order of meatballs for the table, too.

Via 313 — Oak Hill
South Austin
Status: April 2015
What to expect: If you haven't hit the Via 313 trailers at Violet Crown Social Club or Craft Pride, what are you doing reading this? Go already. For those who have experienced the magic of Via 313, expect more of the same at the brick-and-mortar in Oak Hill. In addition to the Detroit-style pies, Via will debut a second type of pizza as well as a craft cocktail program.

Italic
Downtown
Status: Spring 2015
What to expect: The latest from ELM Restaurant Group, Italic will offer a "simple and straightforward" menu thanks to the restaurant's "top-of-the-line" pizza oven. With projects like Arro, Easy Tiger and 24 Diner under his belt, we're betting Chef Andrew Curren will make "simple and straightforward" also "tasty and delicious."

Juliet
South Austin
Status: Late spring 2015
What to expect: They say third time is the charm, right? Though this Barton Springs restaurant has housed both Romeo's Italian Grill & Bar and Umami Mia Pizzeria in recent years, Juliet's will also be offering an Italian-inspired menu. Chef Jacob Weaver, formerly of Asti, will serve simple, wood fired pizzas in addition to pasta, seafood and desserts.

Toss
South First
Status: Summer 2015
What to expect: Billed as a no-fuss neighborhood pizza joint focusing on New York-style pie and craft beers, Toss is slated to open this summer. John Pennington, a partner in the new endeavor, has previously worked in the kitchens at Southside Flying Pizza and Winflo Osterio.

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Belles of the Ballroom

9 Austin bar and venue experts take over popular Old Austin space near UT

29th Street Ballroom/Facebook

Changes are coming at the 29th Street Ballroom, but the goal is to preserve what already makes it special.

The evolution continues at the 29th Street Ballroom, the music venue formerly attached to Spider House Café. It's no secret, Resound Presents CEO and co-founder Graham Williams says, that he and a large team of other industry pros are taking over the space; but now they're ready to talk about what comes next for the venue and adjoining bar.

Although Spider House Café closed in 2020, the Ballroom stayed open, and has continued serving University of Texas students and anyone else who wants to see a show outside of the ordinary: punk shows, burlesque revues, fundraisers, and more. It'll stay open through most of the renovations, scheduled through January of 2025, and is expected to hold a grand opening in March.

Now Resound — one of Austin's top live music organizers, which was itself born from the ashes of another Austin institution — is lending two of its co-founders to managing the space going forward: Williams and Ian Orth. They're joining seven other team members from venues around town, many of them overlapping: Amy Mullins, Brian Tweedy, Jason McNeely, John Yaklin, and Shannon LeBoeuf of Hotel Vegas, Chess Club, Kinda Tropical, Tweedy’s, and Yellow Jacket Social Club, in varying capacities; and Brian Buscemi and Mike Sanchez of the Little Darlin’.

Williams emphasizes that although things will be changing at the Ballroom, the goal isn't to change anything people already love.

"Over the next few months as we kind of ease into the spring, we're using this downtime to revitalize things, decorate, revamp some of the stuff in the venue and the bar, and just kind of get things moving in the right direction," Williams says, "taking what's already popular about the venue and just adding to it, really."

Bar updates
The biggest shift will be turning the bar from an accessory to live shows into its own entity that's open even when there's nothing else going on. Amy Mullins, best known as a co-owner of Yellow Jacket Social Club, is overseeing that transition. She's never operated a venue that is primarily focused on music, and has been enjoying learning more about how to do it; she even worked the door recently when a staff member called out sick.

Mullins echoes Williams in assuring that the change is more about logistics than tone. It'll still feel like Old Austin, but she does express a hope to run more than the "typical venue bar," handing out simple drinks as quickly as possible. She's working on a new menu that includes wine, beer, craft cocktails, and non-alcoholic options like tea, kombucha, or mocktails. Regardless of what's on the schedule on any given night, Mullins says the menu will stay the same.

"There's no drink too complicated for us to make, however busy we are," she says.

Food options
Another goal for the team will be making sure the space works when there's not someone onstage to crowd around. They'll expand the front and side patios and create a food truck food court that features the same trucks that are there now, plus one newcomer. All in all, that includes Yalla Burger & Wings, Gyro Center, Li’l Nonna’s Vegan Pizzeria, Guppy’s Indian Fried Chicken, Waylon J’s BBQ, and Ay Chihuahua Tacos.

The expanded patio will connect to Tweedy's Bar next door, which also has its own food trucks. The idea is to create a space to hang out after shows that feels fit for the purpose. It's possible to stick around after events now, but the layout does create a vague feeling of loitering.

Artist and fan-friendly tweaks
On the entertainment side, Williams says some of the renovations include putting in a new sound system, redoing the green room, updating the facade, and repainting signs. Since the winter is a slower time for live music, they'll be taking advantage of the extra time to work on things before packing the calendar with more events than before. Resound will handle most of the bookings in live music, comedy, and DJ sets, welcoming both national and local talent.

Whatever the details end up being, this team has proved to Austinites that they know how to run venues worth visiting. And since they're all friends and business partners on multiple levels, it sounds like having this many cooks in the kitchen just isn't an issue.

"Some of us have been roommates and known each other since we were young," says Williams. "It's a good mix of people who are all very like minded, so a lot is being brought to the table per decision. So yeah, it's it's really exciting. Sometimes that's not the case. .... But with this project, it's a lot of really great, creative people that are good at what they do [and] they trust each other."

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