A lauded Italian restaurant dynasty from San Francisco is about to launch a pizza joint in Oakland.
The Flour + Water Pizza Shop is opening Jan. 22 at 269 24th St. on the bottom level of the Lark Uptown apartments, just north of Lake Merritt. It’s an offshoot of the popular Italian bistro Flour + Water in San Francisco’s Mission District — which the Michelin Guide recognizes for its “evergreen appeal” — and will be the restaurant’s third Bay Area pizza shop (and first in the East Bay).
Owners Thomas McNaughton and Ryan Pollnow are joining an Oakland-based chef de cuisine, Elliott Armstrong, to manage the kitchen. They describe their pies as taking inspiration from elements of Neapolitan and New York pizzas, reframed in the gastronomic window of Northern California.
What’s that mean? Well, the dough is slow-fermented, and the pizzas are baked longer and at lower temperatures than usual. If you’re a pizza nerd and must know more, here are details from Flour + Water (which might teach you a new word or two):
“Crafted with organic grains from Central Milling and a poolish pre-ferment, the dough undergoes multiple days of cold fermentation prior to being stretched and topped. Baked in high-powered PizzaMaster electric deck ovens, pizzas emerge with a lightly charred cornicione and sturdy structure.” (A cornicione is a pizza crust – and you better eat it!)
Offerings at the new Pizza Shop include the Cacio e Pepe white pie with pecorino crema; the Burrata with dried Sicilian tomatoes, garlic and lemon oil; and the Conrad with taleggio, fresh mozzarella, mushrooms and kale. The Oakland menu isn’t posted yet, but these run between $17-$25 for a 13-inch pie at other locations. There are also slices to purchase for quick munching, with rotating toppings.
The menu is rounded out with antipasti like Castelvetrano olives with fennel pollen, and beets and citrus with stracciatella and pistachios. There are salads and mozzarella sticks and ricotta meatballs. A new dish is the dried-fried chicken wings, seasoned with an Oaktown Spice Shop blend and dipped in an “Easy Bay-inspired green sauce” (which almost sounds like a nod to Cheeseboard Collective’s famed sauce).
And for something extra, the shop is dispensing Double 8 Dairy soft-serve ice cream and pouring its own beer, like the “Dough Boy” house Kölsch, as well as dangerous-sounding “Lambrusco” Slushies.
Details: Beginning Jan. 22, 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays and 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays at 269 24th St., Oakland; fwpizzashop.com
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