652554 Tue Sep 15 11:32:17 -0700 2009 11 1 San Francisco Bay Area 0 5031809 My post on Emilia's opening soon has been moved here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/652506#5031271 Looking forward to feedback when it opens! Tue Sep 15 11:32:17 -0700 2009 195937 tomatoaday 1 5031821 The location is 2995 Shattuck, the little hole in the wall just south of Ashby, a block and a half from Berkeley Bowl, which was most recently I think Pizza Fiesta. Tue Sep 15 11:36:56 -0700 2009 5031809 11369 Robert Lauriston 2 5085150 He has a Twitter account, so you can see the specials and check if he's closed: http://twitter.com/emiliaspizzeria Wed Oct 07 07:43:13 -0700 2009 5031821 11369 Robert Lauriston 1 5073770 Thumbs up. I had a slice of pepperoni from a pie fresh out of the oven. Super high-quality ingredients, nice scorch. Not as crisp as Lanesplitter, maybe closer to Pie in the Sky. Worth a detour if you care about pizza. The guy said he's been open for dinner the last few nights and will do lunch eventually. No set hours yet. Slices, $2.75 regular, $3 pepperoni. Pies, $18, add pepperoni $2, other special toppings change, e.g. sopressata $4. Drinks $1-2. No beer. Nothing on the Web site yet but the address: http://emiliaspizzeria.com/ Thu Oct 01 21:09:42 -0700 2009 5031809 11369 Robert Lauriston 1 5086130 Tentative current hours are Tues.-Sat. 5-9pm or whenever he runs out of dough. Wed Oct 07 12:51:21 -0700 2009 5031809 11369 Robert Lauriston 1 5090000 I stopped in to Emilia's tonight, and made the cardinal mistake of not bringing enough cash to a cash only restaurant (the note says that it's cash only for now, so that may change). I had $4 on me, and so got just one slice of the sausage and red onion pizza ($3). Verdict? I should have gone to get more cash. Now, I am no New York pizza expert, so I have no idea if this is NY pizza or not, but oh man, it was delicious. The crust was thin and crispy and flavorful, the sausage was great, the red onion slices were the perfect size, the sauce was really tasty, and oh wow, the cheese was great. I took tiny bites towards the end of the slice to delay finishing it. Also, I didn't eat it until I had gotten home, about a 5-7 minute trip, and it was still great. I wanted pepperoni, but there were no pepperoni slices available. I saw him making a pepperoni whole pie (I think for one of the tables), and I definitely want to go back to try it. Thu Oct 08 19:57:12 -0700 2009 5031809 13525 JasmineG 1 5090228 We had a whole pie tonight, half plain, half sausage and (house-made) roasted pepper. Excellent pizza. The best sauce I've had out west: smooth, un-herbed, barely salted, sweet rich and tomatoey. Great cheese--he uses fresh mozzarella slices and a lot of good parmesan, grated onto the pie before and after baking. The crust is very thin, almost too thin to eat a slice by hand, but worth the care and folding to do it. I'm not familiar with the SF pizza variations, but a NY point of reference for Emelia's style would be Grimaldi's or Lombardi's, only with less topping. I think his price is more than fair--top-notch ingredients and a large pie for $18 ($21 with a topping). Although after we gobbled it all up our daughter got herself an extra slice because it was so good... and also because two slices didn't fill up a seven-year-old. Did I mention that the crust is thin? Keith, the owner, is taking things nice and slow. He's making about twenty pies a day, which he can manage without hiring anybody. This way he can get to know the neighborhood and the customers. It's now my family's west-coast benchmark pizza, and I'm overjoyed that it's just blocks from my house. Thu Oct 08 22:25:44 -0700 2009 5031809 10331 heidipie 2 5091437 Good pizza! Wish there was more seating.. Some pics of the place and food. http://www.flickr.com/photos/foodnut/sets/ Fri Oct 09 11:24:16 -0700 2009 5090228 264732 Foodnut8 3 5091486 I'm looking forward to this place. Is the "plain" just a plain cheese pizza? (I'm asking on behalf of the kids who only want CHEESE!) Fri Oct 09 11:40:10 -0700 2009 5091437 1099021 eugevon 4 5092775 There are some torn basil leaves on the plain pie, but they're easy to pick off if your kids prefer no greenery. Fri Oct 09 21:57:30 -0700 2009 5091486 10331 heidipie 5 5092885 Got two pies today and they were great. Crust was thin and my 7yo ended up eating a slice of the cheese and two slices of the pepperoni--(and he's picky!) It's a welcome addition to our neighborhood restaurants. Sat Oct 10 00:58:52 -0700 2009 5092775 1099021 eugevon 1 5150804 He's not doing slices any more, or at least experimenting with doing only whole pies. Mon Nov 02 18:18:52 -0800 2009 5031809 11369 Robert Lauriston