New pizzeria in the heights

Houston pizza maestro brings life of Pi to the Heights with his must-try new restaurant

One of Houston’s pizza masterminds is opening his first new pizzeria since 2016. Gold Tooth Tony’s has begun a soft opening in the Heights.

Photo by Eric Sandler

Gold Tooth Tony's pepperoni pizza.

Located in the former Hugs & Donuts space at 1901 N. Shepherd Dr., Gold Tooth Tony’s marks chef Anthony Calleo’s return to operating a pizzeria for the first time since 2018, when he left Pi Pizza, the food truck-turned-restaurant where he earned acclaim for his creative pies. While the chef has been selling Detroit-style pizza at Rudyard’s, the iconic Montrose pub where he is executive chef and co-owner, the overall experience at Gold Tooth Tony’s is a little different.

“At Rudyard’s, aside from pizza, we have 34 other menu items. We’re not a pizza place,” Calleo tells CultureMap. “It doesn’t make sense to put time and energy into those eight or nine menu items when we have the entire rest of the building to run. I thought, what could we do if we just put all of our attention to it.”

Calleo is also aware of the restaurant’s timing. Via 313, the Austin-based pizzeria that has set the gold standard for Detroit-style pizza in Texas, is preparing to open its first Houston-area location near Memorial City Mall. A native Houstonian, Calleo sees opening Gold Tooth Tony’s as a locally-owned restaurant dedicated to Detroit-style pizza to be a matter of civic pride, even though he credits Via 313 for introducing him to the style.

“I decided I really wanted to try my hand at Detroit pizza after eating it at Via 313 in Austin 13 years ago, but I’m still from here,” he says. “I’d like to take a shot at it. I think it’s good. I think it’s maybe some of the best pizza I’ve made when it hits right.”

Making sure the pizza at Gold Tooth Tony’s hits right has involved revisited some of Calleo’s signature pizzas from the Pi days. Menu items such as the Outy5, the Grizz, and the 181 Heights all reference ingredients from the Pi menu that have been reworked to fit the deep dish crust and crispy edges that define Detroit-style pizza.

Of course, he’s developed some new pizzas as well. The Hunger Force starts with meatballs — a recipe Calleo has been refining since he operated Sandy Witch Sandwich Company at Grand Prize — along with whipped ricotta, because it takes a study dough to match the meatballs’ heft. Sebastian’s Big Idea — a Spam and pineapple pizza — is named for the child who suggested the combination to the chef. Of course, Calleo had to put his spin on the idea.

“We take Spam, sear it, cube it. Take fresh pineapple, throw it in a pizza oven until it caramelizes and chars. Toss it in togarashi. Cut it up into cubes. That goes onto pizza. It’s a Spam musubi Hawaiian pizza. I think it’s fun,” he explains.

The menu also includes three sandwiches: a meatball, an Italian-style hero, and a vegetarian sandwich made with tomatoes, arugula, feta, and a garlic-basil spread that Calleo calls “the sleeper on the menu.” A classic lasagna, wings in four flavors, and a couple of other snacks round out the menu.

For now, Gold Tooth Tony’s is only open for dinner and only serving the smaller, 8x10-inch version of its pizza. Over the next couple of weeks, the restaurant will add lunch and late night service — operating from 11 am until 1 am — and a larger, 10x14-inch pizza. Opening slowly reflects some of the lessons Calleo learned from Pi’s frantic early days.

“We’re in a position where we can do this right,” he says. “I know what busy feels like in a pizza place. I don’t think it’s helpful. You burn through staff. It’s okay to open slowly and figure it out.”

the-heights pizza openings news-you-can-eat

Chris Cusack explains

Houston bar owner speaks out about surprise arrest for health code violations

Photo by Sergio Trevino

Chris Cusack owns two locations of Betelgeuse Betelgeuse.

Certainly one of the most unusual interactions between a restaurant and City of Houston officials took place on Wednesday, May 6 when Betelgeuse Betelgeuse owner Chris Cusack was arrested for health code violations at his location on Washington Avenue.

News of the arrest spread quickly across social media over the weekend. Now, Cusack is ready to tell his side of the story.

Cusack, whose time operating restaurants in Houston goes back more than 15 years to Down House and its affiliated restaurants such as Hunky Dory and D&T Drive Inn, tells CultureMap the problem began on Monday, May 4 when a health department inspector came to Betelgeuse Betelgeuse and asked to see the restaurant’s grease trap.

The only problem is that location has never had a grease trap. Prior to becoming Betelgeuse Betelgeuse, it was Liberty Station, a pioneering bar in Houston’s craft beer and craft cocktail scenes. In the early days, Betelgeuse served food from a food truck. More recently, it prepares its food next door at The Bell and Crane. Cusack acknowledges he didn’t share this information with the inspector.

“Usually I’m a charmer with the health department, but I was a little defensive. She kept asking me. I said, ‘ma’am, we don’t make food here,’” he explains. “The tone wasn’t my finest moment, but there was no name calling or anything like that. She said, ‘where does the food come from?’ I said, ‘it doesn’t matter where it comes from. It’s produced in a commercial kitchen.’”

Cusack says he knew there would be a follow up, but he was shocked when the inspector returned two days later with more colleagues from the health department, TABC inspectors, and Houston Police Department officers.

“I got somewhere between 21 and 25 citations,” Cusack says about the return visit. He got dinged for everything from graffiti in the bathroom to a missing Harris County tax stamp on the photo booth he leases from a vendor (it has both State of Texas and City of Houston stamps, Cusack says).

One inspector told Cusack he needed a food dealer’s permit. He showed the inspector that a food dealer’s permit had been issued for the restaurant's address under the former food truck’s LLC but not to the LLC that operates Betelgeuse Betelgeuse. Cusack says he had renewed the food truck’s permit in March, but that wasn’t good enough for the inspector. In Cusack’s telling, he was arrested for not having the permit, since it was also flagged as missing in an inspection from October 2025. He's the only person he knows who has ever been arrested for a misdemeanor violation of the health code.

Cusack says he spent 21 hours in the Harris County Jail. When he got out, he says he was contacted by a more senior official within the Health Department. Once Cusack confirmed he owned both LLCs, he was told he could reopen. Both locations of Betelgeuse Betelgeuse have been operating normally since Friday, May 8.

Cusack maintains he never knew about the October 2025 inspection, which is why he renewed the food dealer’s permit for the food truck’s LLC rather than applying for one under Betelgeuse Betelgeuse’s LLC. “There’s no paper trail that shows I was given this information,” he says. “I did not get the email [from the Health Department].”

As for why things got so out of hand, Cusack theorizes he was a victim of Houston Mayor John Whitemire’s crack down on “reckless behavior” on Washington Avenue and stepped up enforcement on bars generally that led to the temporary closure of near northside cocktail bar Rabbit’s Got the Gun.

Cusack says he’s a “huge supporter” of efforts to reduce crimes like street racing, drug dealing, and sex trafficking along Washington and in its surrounding neighborhoods. Still, he feels targeting by the city for being impolite to a health inspector.

He plans to fight both the arrest and the citations in court. “I want the charges dropped, and I want it expunged completely from my record. That’s the first thing, and I’m going to try very hard to do it,” he says.

“That’s going to end up costing thousands of dollars just to deal with the sheer volume,” he adds.

CultureMap contacted Mayor Whitmire’s office. A representative said the mayor was not aware of the situation and has no comment on an open investigation.

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