Couple Opens Community-Centered Pizza Eatery in Clinton Hill
Matt Hyland had cooked in restaurants for 10 years when he realized he wanted to do something different. He admittedly had gotten “burned out” on traditional cooking and was looking for the next natural progression in his cooking journey.
“Pizza is what I wanted to do with my life,” Hyland said.
He and his wife, Emily, opened a hearth-cooked pizza restaurant – affectionately named Emily – in Clinton Hill this January. And not only did the couple rehab the former site of Wallace for their love-inspired eatery, they funded part of the venture through crowdsourcing and Kickstarter.
The Hylands raised $16,000 with the help of friends and family, and they were able to purchase the pizza oven that now serves as the focal point and centerpiece of the restaurant – a community oven, in a way.
“You can even see it from across the street,” Hyland said.
And it’s that community support that’s permeated into everything cooked in the restaurant.
“We want people in the community to come in and get to know us,” Emily said. “We wanted a genuinely nice option for people in the neighborhood – it’s the equivalent of my kitchen at home if we were serving [friends].”
The restaurant boasts a full kitchen, meaning you won’t find just pizza on the menu. Hyland makes an assortment of salads and pasta. Trumpet, a duck ragu pasta, takes 6 to 7 hours to make each day, and Hyland often is found in the restaurant in the early weekday hours preparing the signature dish – a hearty, old-time, winter pasta.
Each pizza is wood-fired in the centerpiece oven, and the dough and mozzarella are made entirely by hand.
“It’s old-style, but we still keep it contemporary,” Hyland said.
The most popular pie? The Colony, which features pepperoni, pickled chilis and honey atop a sauce and cheese base.
Other pies are named after the couple’s friends and family, like the Angie, named after Hyland’s mom and features her favorite Italian staples. Hyland jokes the Emily, named after his wife, is the heaviest and hardest to carry to the table.
“And the most expensive,” Emily said, with a laugh.
The restaurant also hosts many pizza-centric community events to bring the neighborhood into the restaurant. They hosted a couples’ pizza-making workshop for Valentine’s Day and, on Tuesday, the eatery will combine Emily’s two loves: pizza and yoga.
“I’m excited to mesh these things,” said Emily, who works as a yoga instructor by day, before spending her nights in the communal kitchen. “It’s a way to informally get to know the community … we want to make pizza with them.”
Emily is open Monday and Wednesday through Thursday from 5 to 11 p.m., and the space is closed Tuesdays for private events. The kitchen is open Friday from 5 p.m. until midnight, and they serve weekends starting at noon at 919 Fulton Street.