Local Pizza Joint on Fire
Sunday, May 21st, 2017
A second location has stoked the fires for 575° Pizzeria owner Brian Kelleher and his staff.
The pizzeria named for the temperature of its ovens opened a southwest Amarillo store Wednesday at 7710 Hillside Road, Suite 700, in The Markets at Hillside, complementing the restaurant’s longtime location at 2803 Civic Circle.
“I’ve been waiting to get the public into this place for three months,” Kelleher said. “It’s the coolest place Amarillo’s ever seen if I can boast about something like that.”
The restaurant incorporates elements for which 575° Pizzeria has become known: an emphasis on pizza-making as showmanship, a wide selection of beer, and its support of bicycle culture and P3 — people, pints and pedals — pub crawls.
Customers will be able to watch 575° Pizzeria cooks toss dough and slide pizzas into tall ovens in a kitchen that stretches across one end of the dining room.
“I’ve always wanted the kitchen to be front and center and part of the show because they’re the ones producing the food,” he said.
The restaurant offers 13 beers on tap — “some of the best beers we can get our hands-on,” Kelleher said — and an extensive menu of other bottled brews.
Bicycles play role in the decor. They hang, lighted, from the ceiling, and ride vertically up the walls. Large photographs of gears and bike chains draw the eyes to a bar made of pipe and cypress wood.
“I’ve heard it called new-age industrial,” Kelleher said. “It’s got this huge, open-air feeling.”
Menus at both locations are roughly the same, with a few new pizza combinations at the new spot, he said.
Kelleher intends to roll out nightly pasta specials, sandwiches, and more salad options, and special events are in the works, he said.
In expanding its staff to about 80 people, the restaurant made some culinary hires that will help in new product development and in using the larger kitchen of the Hillside location as a commissary providing products to both sites, he said.
Hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Thursday, and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday. Find 575° Pizzeria on Facebook.
SOURCE: Amarillo Globe-News