Via 313 in the 713

Austin's favorite Detroit-style pizzeria bakes up Houston opening date

For a certain segment of pizza-obsessed Houstonians, Austin’s Via 313 has been looked on with envy. The Detroit-style pizzeria has earned wide acclaim for its deep-dish, rectangular pies, including recognition from Food & Wine and the Food Network.

Houstonians will soon get to experience the restaurant without making a three-hour drive. Via 313 will open its first Houston-area location in the Memorial City area on Friday, March 8 with a ribbon cutting at 10:45 am (10201 Katy Fwy.). It will be the restaurant’s 13th Texas location and 18th overall, joining outposts in Colorado and Utah.

Courtesy of Via 313

Via 313 will open in Houston next month.

Founded in 2011 as a food trailer by brothers Brandon and Zane Hunt, the restaurant partnered with venture capital firm Savory Fund to grow beyond Austin. Memorial City will be the first of at least five Houston-area locations that include the Heights, Webster, Pearland, and Cypress.

The Detroit natives tell CultureMap that they opened Via 313 when they discovered that Austin didn’t have any pizza that reminded them of the places they grew up patronizing. They developed a recipe in their home kitchen that remains at the heart of the restaurant.

“Our version of that style of pizza is a culmination of a lot of different places we ate growing up,” Zane says. “We took the things we liked most about each place and brought it all together. It’s always been our version of what we liked the best. We hoped it would resonate with people, and it has.”

Baked in traditional steel pans, the pies are “cheesed to the edge” (per Brandon) and have sauce added after the bake. “Ends up being really, really good cheese bread with a light sauce on top,” Brandon says.

The menu also includes a Midwest-style, thin crust, bar pie as well as salads, appetizers, and desserts. They’re paired with beer, wine, cocktails, or two sodas that are staples in Detroit — Faygo and Vernor’s Ginger ale.

While partnering with Savory Fund hasn’t changed the food, it has improved the restaurant’s design. Each location has different items that reference pizzerias in Southeast Michigan where the brothers worked or dined.

“We worked with a designer here in Austin who helped us focus to get where we want to be from a design aesthetic and a feel. Houston gets the newest version of those. It’s progressed forward,” Zane says.

“It’s high energy. It’s not rushed. We want the world to slow down for you. We want to be part of the neighborhood. It’s important we blend in and be part of the community,” Brandon adds.

The brothers know Houston well. As Detroit Tigers fans, they made regular trips to Houston from Austin to watch their team play the Astros. Of course, those visits also included eating some pizza. They found a lot of places they liked.

“Obviously, Star Pizza, a classic. We’ve had some good nights sitting on a curb eating Fuzzy’s Pizza,” Brandon says. “Pizaro’s. Most recently, Gold Tooth Tony’s and Nonno’s. I feel like the pizza community is pretty tight. We’re all here to lift each other up. We’re excited to add on to the already great pizza scene.”

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a CultureMap Exclusive

Houston's 'Chinese takeout bar from the future' touches down in Webster

Courtesy of The Rice Box

A rendering previews The Rice Box's new location in Webster.

Houston’s Chinese takeout bar from the future is coming to the Bay Area. The sixth location of The Rice Box will open in Webster later this summer.

Located at 114 El Dorado Blvd, the new location will be called Rice Box Space Center after NASA’s headquarters at the nearby Johnson Space Center. Founder John Peterson tells CultureMap that it’s a bit of a homecoming for him and his wife/business partner, Jenny Vo, as they grew up in the area. As with every new location, the restaurant created a movie-style poster to announce its opening.

Rice Box Webster movie poster The Rice Box Space Center is expected to open later this summer.Courtesy of The Rice Box

For its first truly suburban location, Peterson plans to offer a more efficient pickup system for to-go orders. Dubbed The Rice Box Pickup Reactors, the system applies Rice Box’s sci-fi aesthetic to curbside ordering. As seen in the rendering above, the building will have six slots that drivers will pull into to get their orders.

“The goal is to have guests in and out with food in hand in around 90 seconds,” Peterson writes in an email. “It’s still pickup, but we’re trying to make that moment feel more intentional and more connected to the digital side of Rice Box instead of treating it like an afterthought. We’re looking at this opening as both a new store and a prototype for how Rice Box can work in more suburban markets without losing the part of the brand that makes it feel like us.”

Bay Area-area diners can expect the same menu as the Rice Box’s other locations. That includes staples such as General Tso’s chicken, sesame chicken, beef with broccoli, and orange peel beef. The restaurant also serves traditional Chinese-inspired fare such as Chongqing chicken, cumin beef, mapo tofu, and chow fun noodles.

Recently, Peterson rolled out a new version of Rice Box’s dumplings. Available in chicken, pork, or vegetable, each style of dumpling comes with a different wrapper that enhances the filling’s flavor. They’re also available either steamed or fried.

The Rice Box started as a food truck in the early 2010s. After moving to a permanent location in the Greenway Plaza food court, it has opened brick-and-mortar locations in the Heights, River Oaks, Rice Village, and Memorial.

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