Pizza and beer, but make it classic New York. That’s the aim of prolific brother-restaurateurs Eric and Ian Hilton at Echo Park, a two-part red-sauce pizza joint serving slices strictly of the New York variety through the late evening.

The restaurant, sitting across from the 9:30 Club, is an old-timey table-service pizza place with a short menu of classic and classic-ish pies, a couple salads, and cocktails. Sharing a kitchen but with a separate, adjacent door is Andy’s Pizza, a carryout-only space with long hours (until 4:00AM weekends) that serves slices slid directly from the oven onto a sheet of checkerboard wax paper over a paper plate. The format is comparable to the nearby Hilton institution El Rey, where the inside courtyard serving up margs and Mexican food is separate from the to-go taco window.

Taking over the Hilton brothers’ former Gaslight Tavern bar, Echo Park (named for Glen Echo Park in Maryland, a nod to the Hilton family’s five generations in the D.C. area)  allows the restaurateurs to play with a concept that had been outside their portfolio. For the pies, they partnered with talented pizzaiolo Andy Brown, who runs Andy’s Pizza in Tyson’s Corner. Brown previously served up pies with the Hiltons at a pop up at Satellite Room shortly before the bar’s closure.

Eric Hilton met Brown at a birthday party. After “talking with him for about 20 minutes, I realized that he has an incredible passion for hospitality, food and, especially, pizza. I had never heard someone speak that passionately about pizza,” Hilton tells DCist.

“Eric and Ian are the geniuses at opening a popular bar, and came up with the concept. I’m the pizza guy,” Brown says. “They gave me the liberty to do what I do best.”

Andy’s and Echo Park are in good company with new-ish pizzerias: Emmy Squared serves loaded, square pies just around the corner, while Union Market’s Stellina Pizzeria has earned buzz for a pizza inspired by cacio e pepe. But at his shop, Brown wants to focus just on the basics.

“I love all our specialty pies, but we are a slice shop through and through,” he says. “I want to make the best pepperoni and Margherita pizzas we can.”

Andy’s doesn’t smother the pies with cheese, deafening the other ingredients. Instead, Brown uses a tactful toss of cheese to let the crust and sauce sing together with the toppings.

To achieve that harmony, Brown takes his time with ingredients. He uses the same imported Italian tomato sauce found in old-school New York places and ferments his dough for 72 hours. The team shreds its 24-month-aged Parmesan Reggiano by hand; and the onions for the white pizza go through a two-hour caramelization process to turn brown and creamy. The burrata that adorns his decadent burrata Margherita pie is hand-tied by Brown’s cheesemonger. He also makes sure the toppings adorn a classic, crispy crust. It all comes down to the oven he uses.

“Every pizza maker is in pursuit of the perfect blistered char on the crust. It can’t be attained by anything but an authentic, stone-deck oven, and that’s what we produce,” Brown says.

At the carryout shop, there will only be four traditional options available for slices: cheese, pepperoni, Margherita, and white. Whole pies are also available.

The sit-down space doesn’t stray too far from the basics, either. Manager David Reza, who has worked with Eric Hilton for more than a decade, is keeping the bar options stripped down to ensure that drinks flow freely and speedily.

Given that it’s still a Hilton place, cocktails are flavorful and complex. Three of them come right out of the tap–including Reza’s very own negroni, using his favorite cocchi vermouth and a nontraditional 3:1:1 ratio of gin to vermouth to Campari (compared to the normal 1:1:1).

Beer, however, reigns at the bar, since, as Reza says, “what else pairs better with pizza than beer?” The list includes fan favorites and more obscure options ranging from 4-10 percent ABV. There’s a well-rounded wine list (curated by Eric Hilton himself), along with housemade limoncello on tap (which occasionally makes its way to diners for an after-dinner sip) . “We microplane a ton of lemons,” Reza says.

Like other Hilton watering holes, Echo Park features communal tables and booths to encourage sharing.

“We wanted to make a space that was very casual, neighborhood-oriented, and user-friendly,” Hilton says. “We share the same partnership as American Ice Company and we feel that both places are probably the closest things to neighborhood bars that we are a part of.”

Echo Park has three areas: a lively ‘20s (that is, 1920s) inspired interior; a covered patio back bar centered around a roaring wood fireplace; and a small open-air beer garden that will be ready for summer tippling.

To achieve that communal, casual atmosphere, however, it all comes back to the pizza.

“At the end of the day, I’m just a guy who loves his pie,” says Brown.

Echo Park is located at 2012 9th Street NW. Open Monday-Thursday 5 p.m.–2 a.m.; Friday 5 p.m. -3 a.m., Saturday 12 p.m.-3 a.m., Sunday 12 p.m.-2 a.m. Andy’s Pizza open Monday-Thursday 5 p.m.-1 a.m., Friday-Saturday 12 p.m.-4 a.m., Sunday 12 p.m.-1 a.m. 

This post has been updated to correct the spelling of David Reza’s name, and update details about his previous work.