Wheated Pizzeria Coming to Church Ave

Wheated, a new restaurant and bar, is going to open at 905 Church Ave, just off Coney Island Avenue, in the former location of the notoriously elusive ice cream joint NYC Icy.

There’s a sign posted on the roll-down gate stating that Wheated is applying for a liquor license for a restaurant. The applicants’ names are David Sheridan and Kim McAdam, the husband and wife duo opening Wheated.

“Wheated will be focused on pizza and cocktails and is a reflection of our interests,” says David. “As first time restaurateurs, it is important to us to ground the concept in areas we are passionate about. Kim and I have been known to travel cross-country to sample a pizza or experience a cocktail bar. With Wheated, we are looking to offer a well-made drink, exceptional pizza, and comfortable surroundings. Easy to write — time will tell how well we do with this.”

Church Avenue was suggested as the ‘next big thing’ to the couple over a year ago. When realtors make assertions like that, the right reaction is generally skepticism. However, as businesses such Am Thai and Lark open up on the strip, it has become obvious that Church Avenue is growing quickly. So even though the couple lives in Gravesend, Church Avenue made sense as a launching pad for Wheated. Its closest competition, while different, will be the long-established Rocky’s pizzeria, diagonally across Coney Island Avenue.

“Wheated’s pizza is based in my research and experience as a pizza loving amateur,” says David. In fact, David’s amateur love of pizza is well documented. Slice interviewed him about a backyard pizza oven he built in 2010. With the big brick dome oven in his backyard, David has cooked for friends and neighbors while honing his craft.

“Starting out in our friend’s kitchen and progressing to our backyard with a pizza oven I built, my wife and I hosted many pizza tastings while honing recipes and acquiring feedback,” says David. He hosted weekend pizza parties, usually for about 10 lucky people.

David also manned the pizza ovens at Paulie Gee’s pizzeria in Greenpoint every couple of weeks, an irregular but key step in his pizza apprenticeship.

Bay News said David’s backyard pie could be the best pizza in Brooklyn and lamented that David wasn’t selling it at that point. The best in Brooklyn? That’s a lot to live up to — especially in these parts — but you’ll never catch us complaining about more top tier pizza in the neighborhood.

In addition to wowing hungry critics, David’s backyard pizza lab experiments seems to have yielded results.

“A recent combination that was well received at a tasting was a white pie with Italian sausage, quick pickled green tomatoes, and local sweet corn,” David explained. “Another was a red sauce pie with garlic, smokey bacon, and pan roasted okra. That one had an okra hater rethinking her stance.”

David, a self-described foodie, details the pie he hopes to produce on Church Ave.

“The pizza will not be cooked in a wood-fired oven, but instead a high temperature electric pizza oven,” he says. “Our goal is to have a crust that is a little sturdier than a traditional Neapolitan style but still have many qualities only high temperature baking can create. I should mention, we will not be selling pizza by the slice but by the pie only.”

Wheated is only now in the earliest stages of rebuilding the space. David expects work to begin at the end of the week. For those of you who are hungry after seeing and reading all of this, go grab another slice: the estimated opening date is the beginning of 2013.

Photos: Pizza from David’s backyard oven, David preparing a pie for visitors at his home, and Bay News coverage of David’s pizza party, all via Facebook.