Marin couple’s pop-up pizzeria finds everlasting residence in Novato – Marin Independent Journal

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When I wrote about Corte Madera couple Anna and Jeff Fox’s Bay Area pizza pop-ups early final 12 months, they shared the objective of opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant inside 18 months. On Friday, that imaginative and prescient turned a actuality with the debut of Fox Pizza in Novato’s Ignacio neighborhood.

At the guts of every 14-inch sourdough pie is Jeff Fox’s 7-year-old sourdough starter, mixed with natural Italian-style 00 flour from Petaluma’s Central Milling.

Rather than counting on chilly fermentation for 4 to 5 days as he did whereas working out of a commissary kitchen for pop-up prep, Fox is now on a same-day schedule, slowly fermenting his dough at room temperature for 28 to 30 hours to realize depth, complexity and wild yeast exercise.

“It’s a very live environment, but the result is fluffy and easily digestible,” he stated.

Start your meal with Castelvetrano olives marinated in contemporary thyme, oregano, crimson pepper flakes and lemon zest; home focaccia bread with chilled tomato sauce or pesto; a kale and romaine Caesar salad tossed in a miso-lemon dressing; or an heirloom tomato burrata salad.

Pizzas are layered with Northern California’s Bianco DiNapoli natural tomatoes and a mix of high- and low-moisture mozzarella cheeses. Toppings vary from basic pepperoni to spicy mixtures like house-pickled jalapenos with scorching honey or Italian sausage with caramelized onions, Wild West Ferments chili paste, Mama Lil’s pickled goathorn peppers and shaved Parmesan.

The signature Tie Dye pizza swirls tomato sauce with house-made pistachio pesto, whereas seasonal pies spotlight produce from native farms. These embrace the Elote-Ish pizza, topped with roasted corn, house-pickled jalapenos and crimson onions, cilantro crema, cotija and a squeeze of lime, and the Dippio Tomato with heirloom tomatoes, burrata, contemporary basil, arugula pesto, shaved Parmesan and flaky salt.

Finish with a brown butter chocolate chip cookie, olive oil cake with contemporary whipped cream or celebration cake from fellow Novato enterprise Fire Swamp Provisions.

The beverage record options beers from Northern California breweries and 12 wines from low-intervention producers.

“It’s sort of an introduction to good natural wines because many think they’re funky,” Anna Fox stated. “None have that kombucha taste, and all are high quality from local producers with integrity.”

This contains bottles from Martha Stoumen Wines in Healdsburg and Hammerling Wines in Berkeley, the place Fox Pizza beforehand hosted pop-ups.

Two years in the past, the Foxes returned to their native Bay Area as newlyweds and settled in Corte Madera after seven years in San Diego. While holding down day jobs through the week, they spent their off-hours at breweries, farmers markets and different scheduled occasions with their cellular Gozney pizza ovens as they constructed a following.

Jeff Fox’s hybrid of New York-style and New Haven-style pizza is the results of years of experimenting with fermentation occasions, flour ratios and strategies impressed by pizza makers starting from famed Roman pizzaiolo Gabriele Bonci to New York’s John’s of Bleecker Street to Portland’s Lovely’s Fifty Fifty.

As demand for his or her pop-ups and catering grew, the couple made Fox Pizza their full-time focus. In January, they took over the previous Dragon Cafe on Alameda Del Prado when the Lu household retired in 2025 after greater than three a long time in enterprise.

Anna Fox stated there have been a number of heartbreaks whereas trying to find a everlasting residence, however they discovered the right match after connecting with the Lus by means of Facebook.

In February, the Foxes started renovating the 728-square-foot area, turning it into an off-the-cuff, compact, 20-seat neighborhood pizzeria. Jeff Fox targeted a lot of his consideration on meticulously planning the less-than-300-square-foot kitchen for optimum effectivity.

The morning dough workstation turns into the expediting space throughout service, whereas the prep counter converts into the pizza-making line. A 3-deck Polin pizza oven imported from Italy reaches 800 levels in every deck for high-volume manufacturing.

“The Lus had a family restaurant that served the community for 35 years, and they wanted to turn it over to someone who would do something similar,” Anna Fox stated. “The community near the restaurant is so warm and welcoming, and we are grateful we landed where we did.”

Fox Pizza is open from 4 to eight p.m. Wednesdays by means of Sundays at 528 Alameda del Prado in Novato. Find extra info or place on-line orders for pickup by means of a devoted service window at foxpizzamarin.com.

Leanne Battelle is a contract meals author and restaurant columnist. Email her at [email protected] or comply with The Real Deal Marin at therealdealmarin.com for extra on native meals information.