The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Easy to see why Citizen Pie has stellar reputation
Pizzeria — now with East Side and West Side locations — impresses with wood-fired delights
When I learned last fall that Citizen Pie was opening a second location on Cleveland’s West Side in Ohio City — at 2144 W. 25th St. — it made me kick myself for still having not once visited the original East Side location, despite my best intentions. That spot, located across the street from the Beachland Ballroom music venue on Waterloo Road in Cleveland’s North Collinwood, has been open since late 2015. It’s spearheaded by chef Vytaurus Sasnauskas — a self-proclaimed “pizza guy.” His partners in the venture are Claudia Young and Paulius Nasvytis, founder of the venerable Velvet Tango Room in the Tremont neighborhood. Citizen Pie quickly established a reputation for having some of the best pizza in Northeast Ohio. It should never have taken me threeand-half years to visit, but here we are. Sasnauskas is a Lithuanian immigrant who went to culinary school there after the Soviet Union collapsed, then also trained here after moving to Cleveland in 1996. His pursuit of pizza perfection began at the Americano Bistro in Bratenahl and really took off after a visit to Naples, Italy. Citizen Pie features Neapolitan-style pizza, cooked for 90 seconds in a 900-degree, wood-fired brick oven that was imported from Italy. The impressive oven is in plain view when you walk into the place, a smallish storefront that seats perhaps 20 people. You order at a counter, which has a few seats. The black-and-white tile floor and retro pendant lights give the place an old-time pizza-place vibe, which fits this reinvigorated but older neighborhood. Two more counters provide seating along the front windows, facing the street. The lone table in the dining area seats eight. Citizen Pie’s logo consists of a raised clenched fist, and its slogan is “Pizza for the people,” so the floorto-ceiling wall mural of revolutionary types — Fidel Castro, Spartacus, Martin Luther King Jr. and many more — isn’t a surprise. A print of Andy Warhol hangs on a separate wall and carries his words “I think everybody should like everybody.” I took my son and nephew for dinner, and I was worried that with all the signature pizzas on the menu, not everybody was going to like everything. But that was only partly the case. The menu is divided between red and white pizzas, perhaps 10 each of signature varieties, plus a build-your-own option. We didn’t wait all this time and make that trek to order boring toppings we could get anywhere, so we decided on three of the specialty pies rather than build our own. My son pushed us into the most traditional, a simple red-sauce pepperoni pizza ($13) with mozzarella and oregano. The twist was that the pepperoni is smoked, which made for more interesting taste than you’d get elsewhere. Citizen Pie also uses fresh mozzarella, and the difference between that and preshredded cheese is obvious. What really makes a difference, however, is the dough. It’s made fresh daily with simple ingredients, including a sourdough starter, then fermented for 24 hours. So you’re eating dough today that was begun yesterday, and each day, when it’s gone, it’s gone. The place closes. There are dough meters for both locations on the Citizen Pie website and Facebook page, and it’s advisable to check how much is left before venturing there. The result of the superhot oven on the handmade dough is a thin, but-notparticularly crispy 12-inch crust that’s about 50-50 on whether each piece must be folded in half to eat. It’s actually light and airy on the edges, charred in plenty of spots by the hardwood fire. It’s salted but not salty and is about as good as pizza crust can get. Our other choice from the red-sauce end of the menu was the Little Italy ($15), which consists of Italian sausage, roasted peppers, red onions and fresh basil and oregano in addition to more of the fresh mozzarella. My son didn’t try that one, but his more-adventurous cousin and I devoured it. I loved that neither the crust nor the red sauce is sweet, and that the sausage, peppers and onions actually provide the slight overall sweetness. Every topping was very fresh, too. My favorite of the three pizzas, however, was the Americano ($16), our white-sauce pick. It was topped with fresh mozzarella, Italian sausage and red and green onions. The sauce was a creamy pistachio, and Calabrian chili peppers provided a bit of a kick to the otherwise sweetish pie. The chilis were also a little smoky, with maybe less heat than traditional chilis. The combination of it all was fantastic. There are a few vegetarian options among the house specialties and plenty of fresh veggies on the build-your-own menu. The only food besides pizza on the tight menu is a couple of calzone options, so no appetizers or salads. There are a handful of soft drink options and a few beer and wine choices in the way of adult beverages. Craft beers are in cans, but there is wine on tap or in bottles. As best I could tell, there were only two people working at the time of our visit, multitasking between working the counter and/or making or bringing out pizzas. Both were super-friendly. But if being waited on hand-and-foot is your thing, know this is not a fine-dining joint. That’s not a complaint at all. I think Citizen Pie is perfect as it is — a small, streamlined operation that just puts out phenomenal pizza. It’s stupid that it took me so long to finally enjoy it, but I’ll definitely be back sooner rather than later. Reviews are based on one anonymous visit to a restaurant.