Acre Coffee is opening a new café, Acre Pizza, in the storefront formerly occupied by Village Bakery in the Barlow. The café, which will offer pizza by the slice and in 16-inch rounds, as well as salads, is the newest venture by Acre Coffee owners Steve Decosse and Sharon Fitzgerald.
Decosse describes the pizza they’ll be serving as “a new take on a New York-style pizza. The cheese is cooked more; it’s more caramelized. It’s a bit like a New Haven coal-fired pizza,” minus the coal, he joked.
“It’s a modified, elevated pizza using as many local ingredients as possible, including cheese from Double 8 Dairy in Valley Ford and local produce,” he said. “We’ll do four to six (types of) pizzas and a couple salads — a Caesar salad and some type of green salad.”
In addition to classics like cheese and pepperoni pizzas, he’s also planning a white pizza with potatoes and rosemary and a farmer’s pizza that takes advantage of whatever’s in season.
Decosse is excited about the crust, which will be crisp and darker than usual.
“No flopping allowed,” he said, noting that they’ll also be using a special kind of flour. “We’re the only pizza place I know that’s using California-grown organic wheat.”
This isn’t Decosse’s first foray into food. Acre Coffee has always offered a wider selection of food than most coffee places, and Decosse used to own a restaurant in San Francisco called The Slow Club, which was inspired by the Zuni Café.
“I’ve been in food for 30 years,” he said, noting that his first job, at age 14, was at a pizza parlor in the Ozarks.
“For me, the biggest thing when I go out is how do you find something that’s affordable, but also has quality ingredients and is delicious. Those three things: really remarkable flavors, affordability and integrity of ingredients — that’s what we’ll be working with.”
Acre is sharing the space with Red Bird Bakery which is also opening this week.
Acre Pizza is located in the Barlow at 6760 McKinley St. Suite 150. They’ll be opening on Saturday, Feb. 1.
