If you still regard ham and pineapple as novelty pizza toppings, where have you even been?
In the past year, I’ve had pies adorned with lemon-pepper chicken wings (Phew’s Pies); Jamaican-influenced callaloo and ackee sauce (Dolos Pizza); and pepperoni, hot honey, red pepper flakes and pickled serranos (Glide Pizza).
Depending on your point of view — purist or adventurer? — we are living in the end times or the golden age of pizza cookery.
And now comes Emmy Squared Pizza, where you can get rectangular, Detroit-style pan pizza lavished with classic Italian embellishments (tomato, basil, mozzarella); fast-food ingredients (cheeseburger, Nashville hot chicken); and staples of New Southern cuisine (green tomatoes, pimento cheese, bacon jam). There’s even a riff on Korean chicken wings, and a cousin of the blooming onion (topped with fried Vidalia petals).
Look what they’ve done to my pizza, ma!
Literally the new kid on the block, Emmy Squared, in the old Shed at Glenwood space, is the work of Emily and Matt Hyland, who opened their first restaurant, Emily, in Brooklyn in 2014 and have transformed this sister concept into a national chain with more than a dozen locations.
Credit: Christina Mann Photography
Credit: Christina Mann Photography
Riffing on Emily’s name, the shape of the pizza (sort of), and Einstein’s famous formula, Emmy Squared is a welcome diversion from the time-honored, red-checkered-tablecloth pizza parlors where pies are plentiful but the go-withs minimal.
You can surely find places with better Detroit pies, though maybe not one where you may enjoy delicious cocktails, a world-class burger, and a killer wedge, in addition to the namesake offering. Happily, the nicely refurbished room feels more like a neighborhood hangout with friendly service and really good food than a cookie-cutter, corporate-owned endeavor.
I like it a lot. I plan to go back often.
Credit: Mia Yakel
Credit: Mia Yakel
Pizzas here fall into two main categories — red and white — and can be made gluten free. The red category is where you’ll find familiar flavors; the white is where to look for more creative options, though none are dressed with white sauce.
Credit: Mia Yakel
Credit: Mia Yakel
The MVP (red sauce, vodka sauce, pesto and mozzarella) lives up to its name. The seemingly simple ingredients come together with alchemy, and don’t overpower the wonderful golden-brown, crispy-cheesy crust. A winner indeed. I also liked the Colony (red sauce, mozzarella, cupping pepperoni, pickled jalapenos and honey), though Glide dispatches similar ingredients to better effect.
Credit: Danielle Atkins
Credit: Danielle Atkins
On the white side, the Shed (green tomato, green onion, bacon jam, pimento cheese) was over the top in the best of ways, but my friend’s last-minute decision to order a Quinn (ricotta, mozzarella, smoked Gouda) with pepperoni was a bum one — a three-cheese wash.
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
Indeed, there was one serious misstep, an overly salty eggplant Parm appetizer that our server kindly removed from the bill. Waffle fries topped with Hatch pimento cheese, bacon, scallions and ranch were more gloppy than gooey — which is to say the texture of the cheese suffered from the melting. But our two salads soared: Brussels sprouts with pickled red onion, blue cheese, cashews, dried cherries and miso vinaigrette — and a wedge with Nashville hot chicken, blue cheese, olives, celery, cherry tomatoes, ranch and Alabama white sauce. I can’t say enough nice things about this updated icon.
Credit: Mia Yakel
Credit: Mia Yakel
Though I’d been told that Emily in New York had an exceptional burger, and my colleague Bob Townsend named Emmy Squared’s Le Big Matt one of his favorite dishes in the recent AJC dining guide, I didn’t make the connection until I researched this review. These guys are burger pros, and the one they’ve concocted for Emmy Squared is astonishingly delicious: two grass-fed patties with American cheese, special sauce, lettuce and pickles on a pretzel bun with a cross drawn on the top. It’s not some ridiculously over-stuffed burger that falls apart the minute you look at it, but a well-made little darling that holds together until the last bite.
It’s got the Einstein touch, that one.
Emmy Squared Pizza
Food: Detroit-style pies, sandwiches and salads
Service: good
Setting: nice makeover of former Shed space
Best dishes: Shed pizza, wedge with Nashville hot chicken, Brussels sprouts salad, Le Big Matt burger
Vegetarian selections: garlic sticks, fried green tomatoes, eggplant Parm, Brussels sprouts and kale salads, numerous pizzas (including build your own)
Alcohol: Full bar. Try the Out of Fashion and the Negroni.
Price range: $$
COVID safety: Staff consistently wore masks. Room was not crowded on weeknights.
Credit cards: all major credit cards accepted
Hours: 5-9 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays; noon-10 p.m. Fridays; 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturdays; 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sundays
Children: yes
Parking: free parking in lot and on street
MARTA station: King Memorial
Reservations: yes
Wheelchair access: yes
Noise level: low
Patio: yes
Takeout: yes
Address, phone: 475 Bill Kennedy Way SE, Atlanta; 470-610-0100
Website: emmysquaredpizza.com
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