When East Side Pies opened its doors on Rosewood Ave. in 2006, our East Austin community had more to celebrate than a great new restaurant. We finally had pizza delivery! Long time residents will tell you what a milestone this really was; some had lived mere blocks from pizza restaurants for 30 years with none willing to cross the physical, cultural and class divide of I-35 to deliver to their homes. East Side Pies changed that.
But the good news didn’t end there. It turned out that East Side Pies serves up some of the best pizza in Austin, with an emphasis on inspired combinations of super fresh, seasonal ingredients, often from local farmers’ markets and East Austin’s own Boggy Creek Farm. They were recently named in a top 10 list of restaurants that buy local produce.
So when they offered to donate pizzas for Festival Beach Community Garden’s first-anniversary event, and they suggested they use our own gardeners’ bounty… our tummies growled as our hearts did a little flip flop.
East Side Pies let us peek behind the scenes as they concocted 10 museum-worthy pizzas, using our gardeners’ donated heirloom, tiger stripe and cherry tomatoes, basil, oregano, thyme, bell peppers, cherry peppers, zucchini, squash, eggplant, onions, jalapenos and serranos, placed on top of their superbly thin crust layered with sauce, cheese, EVOO and an amazing chimichurri made of fresh parsley.
The pizzas were promptly gobbled up by party goers and served as one of the big highlights of the day.
Thank you East Side Pies. You are good cooks, good people, and good neighbors.
