3 new metro Atlanta pizza restaurants serving differing styles
Since The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s pizza-focused dining guide in 2022, quite a few new pizza restaurants have entered the metro Atlanta market.
Just last October, the AJC published a list of 11 pizza places that had recently opened. A year later, the metro area’s appetite for pizza hasn’t waned. Kevin Rathbun’s new Krog Bar Coal Fired Pizza is the subject of this week’s restaurant review, but it’s just one of several new places serving a unique pie.
AJC reporters recently visited three other newcomers to the metro Atlanta pizza scene: Brainwave Pizza in Decatur, the second metro-area location of Mister O1 Extraordinary Pizza and the Grove at Monday Night Brewing in West Midtown. Here’s what they found:
Mister O1 Extraordinary Pizza — Buckhead
This pizza chain, founded in South Florida by Italian chef Renato Viola, debuted two Georgia locations this year in Buckhead and Sandy Springs. The first location opened in Miami Beach in 2014 and was later featured as a Michelin-recommended restaurant — an accolade highlighted throughout both metro-area restaurants.
The Buckhead location, found on the ground floor of the Prominence development at the corner of Piedmont and Lenox roads, offers a casual dining room with indoor and outdoor seating as well as takeout ordering.
The menu features a traditional 13-inch pizza with a thin, crunchy crust and prices range from $14.99-$19.99 depending on the pie.
The pizza chain is also well known for its trendy star-shaped 13-inch pizza where the crust is folded into a triangular shape at the top with a dollop of ricotta tucked against the base.
Both styles are gratifying, with the traditional pizza offering more of a crunch and a wider variety of toppings, while the star-shaped pizza is a little softer with the added bonus of creamy ricotta.
Beyond its pizzas, the menu includes salads that diners dress at the table, calzones, sweet pizzas and a burrata bar.
Mister O1 is a destination for crowd-pleasing, thin crust pizza with a variety of topping options. Gluten-free vegan crusts are available for an upcharge, though the kitchen isn’t completely gluten free.
6405 Blue Stone Road, Atlanta. 404-255-3000.
3699 Lenox Road NE, Atlanta. 770-394-5500, mistero1.com
— Olivia Wakim
Monday Night Brewing — the Grove
Monday Night Brewing recently expanded its footprint at its west Midtown location with the Grove. The refreshed location at the end of Trabert Avenue includes 17,000 square feet of outdoor space with a hub of fire pits bordering the Atlanta Beltline’s Northwest Trail, live music, large screens and a patio bar. The 7,400-square-foot taproom also offers ample seating and an extensive pizza station with two cavernous Italian pizza ovens.
Co-owner Joel Iverson developed the Monday Night Brewing sourdough pizza crust during the pandemic, he said. It’s made with sourdough culture from the Garage in the West End, Monday Night Brewing’s barrel aging and souring brewery.
The final pieces of the pizza pie are the 900-degree wood-fired ovens that blister the dough until it has the chewy, slightly crunchy texture and charred flavor of Neapolitan pizza.
On a busy Friday night, the staff was churning out pies in a flurry. After ordering Calabrian ($18) and hot honey ($18) pizzas at the bar, servers took down a phone number to text once the pies were ready.
Monday Night Brewing offers several types of topping combinations including a vegan marinara pizza without cheese. It’s a good pizza to enjoy alongside a beer or cocktail, something to sustain a group having drinks.
New to this location is the gluten-free pizza truck that opens on the property Saturdays and Sundays. The Monday Night Brewing team has been offering gluten-free options for several years. Before the new location, the brewery hosted Gluten Freedom nights every few months where they completely cleaned the pizza ovens and served gluten-free pizza.
After moving to the new location, they hosted Atlanta’s first gluten-free food festival in September and also launched the gluten-free pizza truck every Saturday and Sunday.
The gluten-free crust is made with a recipe Iverson developed using Caputo gluten-free flour from Italy, but the biggest impact comes from the hot, wood-fired Italian pizza ovens, he said.
670 Trabert Ave. NW, Atlanta. 404-352-7703, mondaynightbrewing.com/location/atlanta-the-grove
— Olivia Wakim
Brainwave Pizza — Decatur
When Glide Pizza moved out of the Inner Voice Brewing space near downtown Decatur, it was reasonable to wonder how the cult-favorite pie shop would be replaced. Enter Brainwave Pizza, another pizza restaurant with a unique perspective and its own quickly gathering cult.
Brainwave is one of the few pizza spots in metro Atlanta that serves bar pie, a type of pizza known for its cracker-thin crust and toppings spread all the way to the edge. The Brainwave version is simple, fun and perfect to snack on alongside a few Inner Voice brews. But the restaurant’s more traditional, New York-style round pies are the reason Brainwave has developed an instant following.
The large, 18-inch round pizzas have a flavorful, airy sourdough crust and solid flavor combinations. I tried the pepperoni, basil and hot honey, a mixture that greatly benefited from the large, whole leaves of the herb that ensured the basil was not lost among the pizza’s other intense flavors.
Brainwave also offers much thicker, square pizza the restaurant describes as “fluffy,” though I didn’t have the stomach space to try it. The New York-Style round pies cost $24 — $30, while slices cost $5 or less. The bar pies each cost less that $25, while the square pies cost $24-$28.
The New York-style pizzas and a few sides are available for takeout, and orders can be placed online through the restaurant’s website.
308 W. Ponce de Leon Ave., Decatur. brainwavepizza.com
— Henri Hollis
About the Authors
Olivia Wakim is a digital content producer on the food and dining team. She joined the AJC as an intern in 2023 after graduating from the University of Georgia with a journalism degree. While in school, she reported for The Red & Black, Grady Newsource and the Marietta Daily Journal.
Henri Hollis is a reporter and restaurant critic for the Food & Dining team. Formerly a freelance writer and photographer with a focus on food and restaurants, he joined the AJC full-time in January 2021, first covering breaking news. He is a lifelong Atlantan and a graduate of Georgia Tech.
