Pizza Head takes New York–style pizza for a spin
Peek inside the new restaurant of Pizzeoli owner Scott Sandler.
Photo by Kevin A. Roberts
Photo by Kevin A. Roberts
A gross oversight in the restaurant industry is often compared to having a pizzeria without pepperoni—unless you’re Scott Sandler, for whom that’s a welcome occurrence. The former mortgage investor and vegetarian tops pies with vegan pepperoni and sausage at his wood-fired Neapolitan pizza palace, Pizzeoli, and is doing the same at the newly opened Pizza Head on South Grand’s restaurant row, where there are (inexplicably) no independent pizza joints and no one selling classic 20-inch New York–style pies, despite constant foot traffic. True to the style, the New Jersey native uses high-protein American flour, whole-milk mozzarella, and a bold, slightly sweet sauce, only to veer off course with a white (olive oil) option and vegan (cashew) cheese. A plastic-letter menu board, a punk rock–spewing jukebox, cans of Stag and Busch, and tables papered with concert flyers say “old school”; a pink spatter-painted wall and local craft beer in bottles let you know you’re in the present. The front window says it all—almost: “Large pies. Slices. Cold beer.” The only thing missing: “Oh, and one salad.” So brilliant in its niche-filling simplicity.
Photo by Kevin A. Roberts
