Today, Anderson gets the keys to the former Citizen Pie Roman Café storefront on E. 4th St., which closed this past summer after four years.
"I'm excited about it," Anderson says. "It was really just a matter of finding the right space and this opportunity came up."
To many home cooks, the name Charlie Anderson invites high praise. His YouTube channel has amassed 170,000 subscribers since its launch in 2019, where it is a well-regarded source of how-to content for people who want to make New York-style pizza at home.
Anderson describes his pizza as an "artisan take on the classic New York pizza," mentioning buzzworthy places like Scarr's, L'industrie and Mama's TOO! as paragons of the category.
"Our goal is to bring extremely high-quality pizza by the slice to downtown," he explains. "I want to change the way people think about pizza. A lot of people think it's greasy, heavy junk food. Our pizza is a lot different from that. We approach it from a different perspective, using the highest quality ingredients, made with a lot of care and you don't feel bad after eating it."
When he opens this winter, Anderson will offer 18-inch pies by the slice and whole. He will launch with a concise menu of five standard flavors: Margherita, pepperoni, spicy vodka, marinara and white. He will also offer one seasonal pie, such as fig and bacon, peaches and cream, corn and more.
There will be a couple house-made desserts and possibly salads if the demand is there, he adds.
The space is essentially turnkey, but Anderson says that he plans to make some small aesthetic tweaks to give the space the feel of a modern New York slice shop.
If you want to sample Anderson's pizza, he will be hosting one more pop-up on Nov. 8 at Bookhouse Brewing. The event runs from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. or until sold out.
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