Pizza might be a timeless American classic but at the new bar and pizza joint off the H Street corridor, it’s often just seasonal — or at least the toppings are.
The Little Grand, which opened in early July, plans to always offer two seasonal pies: a “special white” with fresh ricotta and chili oil and a “seasonal supreme,” topped by mozzarella and pepperoncini. They’ll pair each with a veggie, “based on ingredients that we’re getting from the farm,” said Soung Wiser, who is a co-owner along with David Batista and Joanna Brady. “Right now, we’re using eggplant squash but next week, when corn is coming in, we’re exploring a corn and tomato pie.”
The team is also behind the beloved Shaw watering hole All Souls Bar and says they’ve been dreaming up a pizza restaurant for almost six years. They shy away from categorizing the pizza as a specific type, such as Neapolitan or Detroit-style — their website notes only that they have two types of pizza, “square” or “round.”
They brought in New York City chef Bobby Hellen, who is behind the Sicilian-style pies at Black Seed Pizza and GG’s, where he perfected his take on “grandma pie.” Along with the classics — cheese (with an option for vegan mozzarella) and pepperoni — he’s planning on serving up some unusual ingredients, including the “smothered onion” with four different types of onions (depending on the season) and one pizza topped with crushed potato, rosemary, and ricotta.
Their sourdough crust pizzas start at $16 for a 12-inch circular pie or $20 for a 12-inch square pie — which, Wiser explained, has more surface area than a traditionally-shaped pizza.
“And the process is different; whereas the round pies are stretched-to-order, the squares are more work upfront because they are panned and proofed and par-baked.”
Following the seasonal, locavore ethos won’t come at the expense of superior ingredients, Batista said. For example, the team thinks tomatoes from the American West are superior to what they can find regionally.
“The thought is to keep things as simple and straightforward and manageable as possible while still bringing in seasonality and flexibility,” explained Wiser. While she hopes to eventually use only domestic ingredients for their dough, they currently use a blend of three flours: one from Italy and two from Migrash Farm in the Baltimore suburbs.
A variety of classic cocktails — like manhattans and daiquiris — as well as some beers, wines, and digestifs are all on the drinks menu, which likely won’t be seasonal or tied to a sense of place — unless that place is All Souls.
“We’re not going locally just to go locally,” said Batista, noting that a lot of the beers are from breweries up and down the East Coast. “With spirits, you know, if there’s something good that we can use, then we’ll use it. And if not, I’m going to go with more industry standards, things that we have at All Souls because I’d like to have a little bit of overlap between the two.”
Tucked away in what Wiser calls “a pretty clean alley,” The Little Grand is currently dine-in-only. But eventually, you’ll be able to grab pie to-go from their neon-emblazoned take-out window located next to their bright orange entrance, which is framed by bricks painted teal and onyx.
“We’ve been joking about it being the cul-de-sac of alleys,” said Wiser, adding that it lacks the common markers of a dank urban alley.
Plans are also underway to add outdoor seating, if transportation officials green light the expansion (alcoholic beverage regulators already gave their approval, but this would technically make it a streetery and require an extra permit, Batista explained).
Inside, modern lighting fixtures and mirrors are paired with a handful of cushy leather booths tucked into alcoves, creating a modern aesthetic that verges on opulent — but not so much so that you feel discourteous downing an entire pie.
Finding a fitting interior design for The Little Grand was harder than at All Souls, which is housed in a century-old building with original tin ceilings and natural textures which Batista said lend the space “a lot of character.”
The Little Grand, on the other hand, is located in the nearly six-year-old Apollo multi-use apartment building, finished with the same shiny metal and brick facade of many newer residential complexes in the city.
“We were working with this very vanilla, brand-new shell,” said Wiser. “So we wanted it to feel like, if you made the effort to go down the alley, when you enter you’d be surprised and it would feel a little bit like a jewel box that you walked into.”
The Little Grand is located at 808 7th St NE. Open Sunday, Monday and Thursday from 5 p.m.-12 a.m., although the kitchen closes at 9 p.m.; Friday-Saturday from 5pm-12 a.m., although the kitchen closes at 10 p.m.
