A pizza spot from the team behind popular bakery and cafe Root Baking Co. is set to open on the second floor of Ponce City Market today.
Originally founded as a pop-up, Pizza Jeans serves pizza by the slice and pie, drinks and dessert for walk-up takeout and delivery on Fridays and Saturdays from noon-8 p.m.
The menu offers a choice of two red and two white pizzas each day alongside breadsticks, subs, salads and desserts like Italian lemon ice, sourdough doughnuts, a cookie jar with six freshly baked cookies and New York cheesecake.
Customers fill out their order on paper menus with provided Pizza Jeans golf pencils before paying at a counter.
Chris Wilkins, who owns both Pizza Jeans and Root Baking Co. with his wife, Nicole Lewis, makes the pizza dough daily, and pies can be customized with toppings sourced from local farms. Take-home family meals including baked ziti and lasagna will be available soon.
“To me, good pizza is simple: really good cheese, meat and vegetables on really good dough,” Wilkins said in a prepared statement. “We’re doing just that and pinning it as Atlanta-style pizza, showcasing well-executed dough with regionally sourced ingredients and local flavor.”
Credit: Pizza Jeans
Credit: Pizza Jeans
The beverage menu was developed by beverage manager Drew Gillespie, most recently of West Midtown spot Little Trouble, and includes beers on tap, lemon soda (with the option to add vodka to make it boozy) and wine specials. Around half of the wine selection is from woman-owned or -operated vineyards and those that employ sustainable farming practices to produce biodynamic, organic, vegan and unfiltered wines.
Pizza Jeans’ design features “blue hues, dark draperies, leather booths, items sourced from antique shops and bookstores, and a nine-seat bar which will eventually offer full-service dining,” according to a press release.
Open Saturdays and Sundays from 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Root Baking Co. will reopen in a new food stall adjacent to Pizza Jeans on Aug. 8 and offer an all-day, counter service menu with breads, pastries and brunch, featuring breakfast sandwiches, a new Grit Bowl, mimosas and brunch cocktail.
After ordering, customers can take their order to-go or eat it in the Ponce City Market Central Food Hall. Root Baking Co. bread and pastry pre-orders are available for pickup at Morningside Farmers Market on Saturdays. Their breads can also be found at six Whole Foods locations – Ponce, Midtown, West Paces, North Buckhead, Decatur and Brookhaven.
Wilkins and Lewis first opened Root Baking Co. in late 2018. In February, Wilkins, was named a semifinalist in the outstanding baker category of the James Beard Awards for the second year in a row.
Before officially taking over half of the Root Baking Co. space, Pizza Jeans operated as a pop-up, offering curbside pickup Wednesdays through Saturdays.
Wilkins told AJC food writer Wendell Brock earlier this year that he grew up around pizza, and had a job as a teenager working for a provisioner that supplied pizzerias and restaurants. “We delivered sauce, tomatoes, cheese to different pizzerias all over the state of New York, and New Jersey and Pennsylvania,” he said. “I just loved that job. … That was my favorite world to be in.”
Pizza Jeans is open for takeout and delivery from noon-8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, and Root Baking Co. is open from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday-Sunday.
675 Ponce de Leon Ave. NE, Atlanta. 470-639-8046. https://www.rootbaking.com/
Scroll down to see the full opening menu for Pizza Jeans:
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