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    Sneak Peek at Pi Pizza

    Sneak peek at Pi Pizza: Acclaimed food truck finds a permanent home for distinctive pizzas and more

    Eric Sandler
    Aug 23, 2016 | 10:32 am

    As anyone who’s been following along on social media knows, Pi Pizza is very close to opening. The food truck-turned-restaurant has removed all traces of the former Funky Chicken from its Heights-adjacent home — replaced by a checkerboard floor, custom-painted skateboard decks on the walls, and, of course, a massive pizza oven in the kitchen.

    After spending this week training, chef Anthony Calleo and his crew will open for lunch and dinner on Monday (delivery will follow after a week or two). Opening represents the fulfillment of a dream Calleo has been chasing almost since he started the truck five years ago: a dream that got a boost when Calleo joined up with restaurateur Lee Ellis and his recently launched company Cherry Pie Hospitality earlier this year.

    (Update 8/26: Pi Pizza's opening has been temporarily pushed back by delayed equipment, but it will open sometime in the week of August 29.)

    “For me, part of my worry is with the truck I caught lightning in a bottle. What happens when you move into a bigger bottle? How do you keep it from escaping,” Calleo says. “Getting to work with Lee, Jim (Mills, Cherry Pie partner), Laurie (Harvey, Cherry Pie beverage director), Rob (Harvey, Cherry Pie operations director), and Jason (Richburg, Cherry Pie culinary director) and all these other people who are fucking amazing, they’re just monsters, really good at what they do, who are so invested in seeing me succeed, has eased a lot of those concerns.”

    Getting off the streets has meant some compromises from the truck’s "my way or the highway" ethos. The menu of 20 pies now offers mainstream fare like pepperoni, as well as classic American combinations like veggie, supreme, and meat lovers. Diners are even invited to build their own, which was unthinkable in the truck days.

    Still, Pi fans shouldn’t worry that the restaurant has gone too mainstream. Calleo says he identified 62 pizzas that could have made the menu; those that didn’t make the cut will rotate on as specials.

    Truck favorites like the Grizzly Hawaiian (chicken, bacon, pineapple, honey), the Southern Heritage (bacon-braised collard greens and pancetta), and the Sorority Girl Surprise (chicken, jalapeno ranch, bacon) are all accounted for. Six vegetarian options include the Sgt Pepper Redux (blackberries, black pepper chevre from Pure Luck farms, mint pesto), the Funk & Circumstane (lemon-roasted cauliflower, garlic confit, taleggio), and the Herbivoracious (arugula, roasted garlic oil, toasted almonds, fennel pollen).

    Calleo thinks even the truck classics will taste better thanks to having access to higher-quality ingredients that come from being part of a restaurant group. For example, Calleo has sourced his pepperoni, sopressata, and pancetta from legendary San Francisco-based purveyor Mollinari & Sons and the baguettes for his cheesesteak stromboli and grinder subs from a bakery in New Jersey.

    “The soppressata I was using on the truck was good. This stuff, it’s more expensive, but the difference is like throwing a bullet and shooting a bullet. It’s exponentially better,” Calleo says. “I couldn’t have gotten this stuff on the truck before, because I didn’t have the buying power to source it. Being able to do the food I was doing before that I really believed in with even better stuff makes me super happy.”

    While the toppings will be better, Calleo thinks the biggest benefits of being in a restaurant will come from not having to drive the pizza dough all over town. For the truck, he made the dough at Grand Prize and wrapped individual crust-sized balls in plastic that came out during service. Now, the dough only travels a few feet from the restaurant’s mixer to its walk-in refrigerator where it proofs at a steady 37 degrees.

    “That retards the proofing and improves the flavor. It’s a more actual representation of the hydration ratio in the dough,” Calleo explains. “The crust browns better, it rises better, the yeast is happier in the dough. It gets you better flavor and performance.”

    In addition to pizza, the restaurant will serve starters like breadsticks, pizza rolls, and deep-fried mac and cheese balls. Showbiz Queso — named for the predecessor to Chuck E. Cheese that served as the home of birthday parties for Houstonians who are now in their late 30s and early 40s — attempts to capture in taste form what Calleo remembers the restaurant’s pizza smelled like.

    Four sandwiches, including the meatball and chicken parmesan from the Sandy Witch days, and four salads, including an innovative presentation of the classic Caesar that’s designed to be picked up and eaten like a lettuce wrap, round out the savory menu. For dessert, choose from four boozy flavors of Lee’s Creamery ice cream or chocolate chip cookies from Petite Sweets.

    On the beverage side, Harvey has developed four frozen cocktails such as a Negroni and the “pineapple express” (tequila, mezcal, cinnamon, pineapple and cayenne) that will be joined by bottled cocktails, two wines on tap, a rotating selection of craft beer, and non-alcoholic options including a Coca-Cola Freestyle machine.

    As he’s discussing the salads, Calleo drops the philosophy that guides his cooking and should help diners anticipate what to expect when they dine at Pi Pizza.

    “I’m not Grant Achatz, I’m never going to cook like that. It’s not what I do,” Calleo says. “What my goal is to serve you food that you read and you go ‘ok,’ then you eat it and go ‘wow, that is better than I thought it was going to be. How did you do that?’ That to me is what I want to achieve.”

    Beginning Monday, diners will get to decide whether he’s succeeded.

    Pi Pizza opens Monday.

    Pi Pizza selection
      
    Photo by Julie Soefer
    Pi Pizza opens Monday.
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    he finished the job

    Houston chef Tristen Epps dishes on his Top Chef victory — and what's next

    Eric Sandler
    Jun 13, 2025 | 9:05 am
    Top Chef Tristen Epps
    Photo by David Moir/Bravo
    Kristen Kish, Tristen Epps, Gail Simmons, and Tom Colicchio.

    Houston has played a leading role in America’s culinary scene, but the city has never been home to a Top Chef winner — until last night. In the final episode of season 22, chef Tristen Epps earned the title and a $250,000 cash prize.

    Epps secured his victory by remaining true to the Afro-Caribbean cuisine that helped him secured an impressive four Elimination Challenge wins and $35,000 in additional prize money from two Quickfire wins and as a member of the team that won the show’s signature Restaurant Wars challenge. His four-course menu took a panel of celebrity judges on a journey that also referenced the finale location of Milan, Italy.

    In particular, Epps wowed the panel with his second course — Chicken “Durango” with injera shrimp toast and shellfish jus — that referenced both the Ethiopian chicken stew doro wat and the Italian dish pollo durango, a sly nod to the history of imperialism between the two countries. He finished his savory offerings with Oxtail Milanese Crepinette with Carolina Gold rice grits, curry butter, and bone marrow gremolata, which earned praised from the panel.

    “Historically, we’ve been underserved oxtail,” Top Chef alum and James Beard Award winner Gregory Gourdet said during the episode. “Tristen took the time to pull it, create that beautiful, huge, maybe too big, portion of oxtail. And cover it with that gremolata. He did not forget the bone marrow. That’s very, very smart.”

    Throughout Top Chef’s run, Epps has been holding a series of pop-ups devoted to everything from hot dogs to steakhouses. Now, he can turn his attention to Buboy, a tasting menu concept that will celebrate the Afro-Caribbean cuisine he championed throughout his time on the show.

    CultureMap caught up with Epps on Friday morning for a brief chat about his victory and what’s next.

    CultureMap: What do you remember from the day you cooked that final dinner?
    Tristen Epps: It was an extreme amount of focus. A lot of writing in my notebook. I didn’t want to laugh. I didn’t want to cry or do anything except finish the job, regardless of whatever the outcome would have been. I remember wanting to call my mom. I really wanted to talk things out so I could calm myself down and stay within my focus. Once I got into cooking, I felt so much at ease. It’s my happy place. It’s my serenity.

    CM: How did you feel when you saw Gregory Gourdet on the panel? Did you feel like you had an advocate in the room?
    TE: I’ve cooked with gregory before, a long time ago. It was really fun. I loved what he was doing.

    I felt like I had kind of an advocate. I was worried my food wold be too spicy or too overpowering [for the European chefs]. Seeing Gregory was really good, especially with what I was doing.

    CM: Other chefs, including Gregory Gourdet and Houston chef Dawn Burrell, have done well on the show with Afro-Caribbean cuisine but they didn’t win. How important was it to you to finish the job and use those flavors to win the title?
    TE: To me that was super important. There’s adventurous people who make phenomenal food. They’ll go once because it’s interesting, bu they’re usually skeptical. When you don’t nail it, they say, that’s why I go to the regular places that are familiar.

    Finishing the job was really important to me. People have come up short on this. I wanted to get this right for everyone who’s made that step forward and created the ladder.

    CM: What have your last 12 hours been like since the episode aired? Have any celebrities reached out to you?
    TE: A lot of calls, a lot of good luck. A lot of everything. It’s been amazing.

    A lot of past Top Chef winners reached out to me, giving me a lot of support and telling me what they did after they won.

    [ESPN football commentator] Mina Kimes did, which was really cool.

    CM: What are your plans for the prize money?
    TE: It’s going to go to Buboy. Now that the cat’s out of the bag, it can go a little faster.

    CM: You’ve been holding a series of pop-ups that range from tasting menus to hot dogs? What’s next?
    TE: Part of getting the restaurant open has been introducing myself to all of Houston. These pop-ups represent my interests and my fun. They’re the things that Buboy is going to represent. It can be fun, it can be a conversation, it can be educational, it can push the limits of cuisines we know. It’s an expression of culture in whatever way I see fit that day.

    The hot dog concept will probably be a separate venture, but who’s to say there’s not a hot dog at the end of that meal?

    Top Chef Tristen Epps
      

    Photo by David Moir/Bravo

    Kristen Kish, Tristen Epps, Gail Simmons, and Tom Colicchio.

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