Build-your-own food and drink bars are a popular and growing feature at restaurants: We’ve seen build-your-own taco and burrito counters, bloody mary bars and even the recently opened Rock n’ Pops paleteria, a build-your-own popsicle shop.
Customizable food is hard to beat, especially when there’s no up-charge for extras. Lit Pizza founders and owners Ozzie Fernandez and Gary Kovacs are also the founders of Izzo’s Illegal Burrito, another wildly successful build-your-own concept in Louisiana. Lit Pizza is a sort of spin-off of Izzo’s, incorporating limitless toppings at one flat price.
Lit Pizza held its opening Monday, Aug. 15, despite the recent floods, but Fernandez says it was still a success and he was glad to be one of the open restaurants providing hot meals. Going forward, he wants to implement a fundraiser to help flood victims, such as donating one dollar from every pizza to relief organizations. Visit the restaurant’s Facebook page for updates.
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The restaurant’s 11-inch New York-style pizzas (that means a thinner crust) run at $6 for plain cheese, $7 for two toppings and $8 for unlimited toppings or a signature pizza.
The toppings bar sits in front of the wood-fired brick oven—Lit uses oak wood—and houses classic pizza toppings such as pepperoni, onions, bell peppers and mushrooms, as well as more gourmet toppings such as caramelized onions, roasted red peppers and roasted zucchini.
In terms of cheese, Lit Pizza-goers can expect more than the traditional mozzarella—there’s also Gorgonzola, Parmesan, ricotta, feta, goat cheese and Daiya, a vegan cheese. For pizza lovers with gluten allergies or preference for gluten-free bread, Lit Pizza offers a gluten-free crust.
The pizza restaurant also offers a white cream sauce, pesto, barbecue sauce and olive oil in addition to the traditional red sauce base. And not foregoing the classic pizza-and-beer combination, Fernandez and Kovacs brought in brews from Tin Roof Brewing Company, Gnarly Barley Brewing and Parrish Brewing. The restaurant also serves housemade lemonade and blood orange lemonade.
Fernandez and Kovacs partnered with City Pork and Hanley’s Foods, using City Pork andouille sausage as a pizza topping and Hanley’s dressings as pizza “finishers,” a drizzle on the cooked pie. And quite possibly the best part: The brick oven runs at 675 degrees, which means the pies only need to cook for 180 seconds to get that perfect buttery crunch.
The restaurant is small but well-decorated. The trim of the pizza bar is outfitted in wood cured using a Japanese technique called “shou sugi ban,” which finishes the lumber with flames. The result is a smooth, dark, marbled aesthetic.
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The tabletops match the trim, and seating includes a balanced mix of bar stools and modern metal chairs.
In addition to the recent opening, Fernandez says he and Kovacs will be announcing a second location in a couple of weeks. The second location will be near Prairieville, and Fernandez says many more will be coming to the Capital City region.
Lit Pizza is at 3930 Burbank Drive, open 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday-Wednesday, and 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Thursday-Saturday.