boh grows

Downtown food hall's pizza star spins off hot new Heights-area slice concept

BOH Slice will feature pizza by-the-slice.

BOH Pasta & Pizza/Facebook

Another Bravery Chef Hall success story is expanding. The downtown food hall’s Italian concept, BOH Pasta & Pizza, will launch a fast-casual sister concept called BOH Slice and a new partner who can fuel its growth, chef-owner Ben McPherson tells CultureMap.

BOH Slice will put the spotlight on the Roman-style pizza al taglio served at BOH’s Bravery location. As its name implies, the restaurant will serve pizza by-the-slice along with larger, shareable pizzas and salads. Diners will have the option of either ordering a preset mix of toppings or building their own from a wide selection of toppings, including pepperoni, mushrooms, Parmesan Reggiano, and Prosciutto di Parma.

“What I’ve found with the dough is it’s an amazing vessel. It carries ingredients really well,” McPherson says. Later, he adds, “I think people like to have that control and be the chef themselves. We have the basic recipes, and we’ll bring in the high quality ingredients.”

The first BOH Slice will open this summer in Railway Heights, the new food hall, market, beer garden, and more project from Bravery Chef Hall partners Anh Mai, Lian Pham, and Shepard Ross. It will be the only pizza option in the food hall.

To power that growth, McPherson has recruited chef Chris Zettlemoyer to be his partner. A veteran of Boudreaux’s Cajun Kitchen and Whiskey Cake, Zettlemoyer brings multi-unit experience that will allow BOH Slice to grow across the Houston area and beyond.

“I’ve known Chris for seven years,” McPherson says. “We’re not only amazing friends, but I admire everything he does. We click when it comes to how restaurants work.”

“BOH is just built to expand in fast casual with the flow of the pizza,” Zettlemoyer adds. “Like Ben said, we met on a farm looking at tomatoes and have been trying to find a way to work together ever since. It’s the right time in my life, and the right time in BOH’s life to grow it.”

As for the Bravery location, it will continue to serve both pizza and pasta. McPherson also plans to continue growing his wholesale pasta business that sells to restaurants across the city. He recently purchased a machine that allows him to produce 350 pounds per day.

Those who visit Bravery beginning April 20 will find a new pizza on the menu. McPherson collaborated with Craft Pita owner Rafael Nasr on a chicken shawarma pizza that uses the Lebanese restaurant’s signature aioli and zatar spice. “It came out fucking good,” McPherson says.

Proceeds from the collaboration will benefit Ty Grossie, the BOH cook who’s currently being treated for cancer. In future months, McPherson will roll out pizzas developed by Degust chef Brandon Silva and Riel chef Ryan Lachaine.

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better than blini

Houston pizzeria unveils indulgent caviar pizza for the holiday season

Courtesy of Pizaro's Pizza

Get the Holiday Decadence pizza through the end of December.

One of Houston’s most well-regarded pizzerias is giving diners a way to splurge this holiday season. For a limited time only, Pizaro’s Pizza is topping one of its Neapolitan-style pies with caviar.

Called the Holiday Decadence, it’s a personal-sized, 8-inch, Neapolitan-style pizza topped simply with Pizaro’s housemade mozzarella cheese and seasoned with a little furikake. Alongside, the restaurant provides diners with lemon zest crème fraîche, a small bottle of prosecco, and a one-ounce jar of paddlefish caviar from Houston’s DR Delicacy. Priced at $59, it’s either an indulgent treat for one person or an extravagant appetizer for two.

Pizaro’s co-owner Nicole Bean tells CultureMap she sees the new pizza as an improvement on the caviar special the restaurant tried two years ago, which used its thicker, Detroit-style pizza.

“This year, we simplified things,” she says. “We made it more affordable. We added more caviar. The feature is the caviar, focusing on having a whole, one-ounce container either for yourself or to share with one other person.”

In this configuration, the pizza crust essentially serves as an oversized blini, with the furikake boosting the caviar’s oceanic flavors. Serving the caviar in the jar allows diners to add as much or as little to the pizza as they want. Introduced last week, Bean says the restaurant hasn’t sold that many caviar pizzas yet, but that doesn’t surprise her.

“People are a little hesitant with it being caviar and the $60 price point,” she says. “It’s not for everybody. It’s for people who are curious and want to try it or really love caviar and want to try it every way they can.”

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The restaurant always uses its monthly specials to experiment beyond familiar toppings like pepperoni and mushroom. Next month, Bean and her brother, co-owner Matt Hutchinson, will present dueling pies — his topped with crispy prosciutto, sautéed onions, and balsamic drizzle and hers a simple tomato pie, anchovies optional but strongly encouraged.

“The fun thing about pizza is you can literally do anything with it,” Bean says. “I want people to try different things on pizza. It can be decadent. It can be upscale. It can be fresh and new.”

The Holiday Decadence is available at both Pizaro’s locations through December 31. Find more details at the Pizaro’s Pizza website.

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