New Flat Earth Pizza to change Carson City's view of pie

Conventional wisdom may be that the earth is round, but in Ryan Walker's world of pizza making, flat is where it's at.

The new owner of Thick Slice Pizza on East William Street in Carson City took over operations in January 2017 with aspirations of not just rebranding the pizza, but remaking it completely different.

“I am ecstatic to finally introduce Flat Earth Pizza, and the 'true' New York Brick Oven experience to Nevada," he told the Carson City Chamber of Commerce, "and with it, the slow smoked tastes of the West.”

A former software engineer with his own company, Walker decided to devote himself to his true passion — pizza pie — when his Reno business was bought out recently by a larger corporation.

He, in turn, purchased Thick Slice Pizza at 2010 E. William Street, and is now in the process of converting it into Flat Earth Pizza, a nod to authentic New York brick-oven style pizza known in the business as pizza making the old world way.

The restaurant is currently closed for remodeling, Walker said, but he hopes to be reopened with a totally new look and new menu by early June.

"The style of pizza out of New York is called brick oven old world style," he said. "I trained with these guys who perfected this style of pizza."

Bucking contemporary cooking methods, old world style relies on the tride-and-true of wood-fired brick ovens to give pizza pie both distinctive texture and flavor.

Walker's brick oven, handcrafted in Italy and purchased from the New York Brick Oven Company, will be able to heat pie at 900 degrees, cooking it through in less than four minutes, Walker said.

Walker said modern technology built into his classical oven will decrease cooking time substantially over contemporary ovens while increasing volume, producing pies at a rate as high as 200 in under an hour.

"It's old world in look, but with modern aspects," he said. "It's a super efficient oven with technology in the oven that features a rotating base, baking a consistent pie every time."

But that's as far away from tradition as Walker said his old world style will get.

The pies otherwise will still be made with ingredients only found on the East Coast of the United States, he said, including a mozzarella cheese made conducive to high heat ovens.

"It's a special cheese where we lay down slices not shreds," Walker said. "It's unique to old world style."

Even the pizza sauce for will feature San Marzano Tomatoes, grown only in the San Marzano region of Italy.

"San Marzano, Italy, is where volcanic ash makes best the tomato on the planet," Walker said. "You want the tomato to be the star of that sauce. You really want that tomato taste to really come through."

While pizza pie may be the star of the show at Flat Earth Pizza, Walker said, the restaurant will also introduce tastes of the New World to the traditions of the Old World, combining his passion for pizza with his love of slow-smoked barbecue.

"We're going to have a smoker on site for smoked meat," he said. "That's been another passion of mine."

The restaurant's menue will include smoked ribs and signature sandwiches featuring pulled pork, pastrami, brisket and other smoked barbecue meats.

"We're going to put the pastrami sandwich on the Carson City map with our signature house jerk pastrami," he said. "We are going to smoke all of our meats, everything except the italian jerky."

The pulled pork, Walker said, is slow-smoked 12 hours and will be a feature topping on Flat Earth's Hawaiian Luau pizza.

Even some of the vegetables will be smoked, he said. And those that aren't will be roasted in the wood fired oven.

"The wood fired oven just brings that flavor to a whole other level with the pizzas," Walker said.

Dessert pizzas will round out the menu at the all-new Flat Earth Pizza.

"We're going to have some amazing dessert pizzas on the menu," Walker said, "including a signature applie pie pizza with a brown sugar cinnamon crumble topped with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream."

Other changes to the restaurant will be transitioning from counter to table service, he said, and opening up the restaurant so patrons can see their pizzas being made, placed in the oven and then taken out bubbling hot before their eyes.

"We are focusing on the experience in addition to the pizza," Walker said. "The oven is going to be a focal point of the restaurant with pizza making right out in front of everyone. We going to open up the restaurant."

The restaurant, he said, will also be extending its hours in anticipation of a busy reception to the community, opeing at 11 a.m. and closing at 9:30 p.m. weekdays and 10:30 p.m. weekends.

He said the restaurant will initially be closed on Mondays, but that may change as business does.

Visit www.FlatEarthPizza.com for more information.