As the pandemic took hold last spring, chef-restaurateur Michael Schlow wondered what people would crave while they were stuck at home. The James Beard Award winner quickly concluded comfort food was the answer, so began adding homier fare at his restaurants, including casual Italian trattoria Alta Strada in Mount Vernon Triangle and Mexican-inspired Tico on 14th Street.
Months passed with no end to the lockdown in sight. Schlow began seeing ghost kitchens pop up and make a killing specializing in familiar favorites: burgers, fried chicken, and suddenly ubiquitous cheesesteaks. He started asking himself a new question: “How do we put our hat in the ring and do something that is casual, everyday food with something for everyone?”
The answer is his two-location ghost kitchen, Little Prince Pizza, which debuted for takeout and delivery last month, operating out of Alta Strada and Schlow’s recently opened Glover Park Grill. (The venture was originally called Georgetown Pizza, but the name was too difficult to Google and was confusing since neither location was in Georgetown.) His newest eatery’s offerings are super straightforward: pizza, burgers, wings, sandwiches, salads, a couple of desserts. “It’s the foods we love to eat,” Schlow says.
The pizza sports a crust on the thinner side — somewhere between New York and Neopolitan styles — belying its flexibility and tenderness. There is a trio of classic options: margherita, bianco (three cheeses, no sauce), and Trenton (San Marzano tomatoes, garlic, oregano, crushed red pepper, no cheese).
House specialties go farther afield. The Hamilton (named after its creator, chef Hamilton Johnson, who oversees Glover Park Grill and that location of Little Prince Pizza) is decked out with decadence: short rib, truffled honey, and ricotta. The Works, boasting “everything but the kitchen sink,” was inspired by the overloaded pizzas his mother brought home for dinner on Friday nights. “I remember not being able to eat it, because you couldn’t pick it up,” he says. “And there were whole brown anchovies all over it.”
In his rendition, there are a lot of toppings — tomatoes, pepperoni, red onions, mushrooms, bits of anchovy, and more — but not so much of anything that a slice sags when you pick it up.
The most unconventional offering is the All American: essentially cheeseburger pizza. Easy on the sauce, it’s topped with ground beef, smoky bacon, cherry tomatoes, and mozzarella and American cheeses before it goes into the oven. When it comes out, it’s finished with cold onions, pickles, and shredded lettuce. “I’m such a purist, but it’s good,” says Schlow.
Wings come sauced four different ways: Buffalo, Korean barbeque, jalapeño honey, and sriracha-mumbo. After a roast, they finish cooking in the pizza oven. One twist on wings didn’t end up on the menu: The team tested a double fried version that Schlow says were delicious when served right away, but ended up gloppy after spending time in a takeout container. That’s one of his new considerations when designing a dish: If it doesn’t travel well, it doesn’t make the cut – no matter how good it would taste at the restaurant.
Sandwiches run the gamut from classic double cheeseburger and fried chicken sandwich to chicken parm and crispy short rib drenched with poblano cheese and topped with wild mushrooms (their version of a cheesesteak). There’s also a lineup of dependable salads.
There are just two desserts — tiramisu and oversized cookies dotted with pools of dark and milk chocolate — and beverages are limited to soda, beer, and White Claw.
Though the ghost kitchen was designed to meet the unique challenges and opportunities of the pandemic, Schlow plans on keeping it going after COVID-19 is in the rearview mirror.
Little Prince Pizza is located at 2505 Wisconsin Ave. NW and 465 K St. NW. Hours at K St. NW are Sunday-Thursday 5 p.m.-9 p.m., Saturday-Sunday 5 p.m.-10 p.m. Hours at Wisconsin Ave. NW are Monday-Sunday 5 p.m.-9 p.m.
