BUFALINA OPENS NEW YORK-STYLE PIZZERIA IN EAST AUSTIN

Neapolitan pizza restaurant Bufalina is opening its new pizza restaurant this week. Palm Pizza debuted at 1701 East Cesar Chavez Street in the East Cesar Chavez neighborhood October 26. And it’s open for both takeout and dine-in services as of December 6.

Palm focuses on New York-style pizza, which means thin-crust pies with large slices cooked in gas ovens (as opposed to Bufalina’s wood-fired Neapolitan pies), all topped with basil, parmesan, olive oil, and Sicilian oregano. Expect pies like the cheese with mozzarella and tomato sauce; the pepperoni; red pies with either tomato sauce and nutritional yeast or parmesan, garlic, chile flakes, and bread crumbs; a sausage and onion; the fried eggplant with ricotta, provolone, fennel pollen, and black olives; and finally the namesake, the Palm pie, with stracciatella, mozzarella, and tomato sauce.

Sides include essentially a garlic knot sandwich, where the bread encloses burrata, mortadella, pistachio, arugula, and cherry peppers. There are also chopped salads with chickpeas, heart of palms, cucumbers, roasted peppers, proline, soppressata, quinoa, romaine, radicchio, parsley, and olives, plus choice of serrano ranch or zesty Italian dressings. For drinks, there are domestic wines (by the bottle and glass) from managing partner and wine director Rania Zayyat, beers, and nonalcoholic beverages.

Palm Pizza opened initially for limited takeout orders for nearly six weeks. The dine-in services include indoor and outdoor seatings. Its hours are from 5 to 10 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. There are plans to expand hours in early 2024.

Owner Steven Dilley had always wanted to open a New York-style pizzeria because he loves the pie style. Chef Grae Nonas helped develop the menu and running Palm’s day-to-day operations is Clint Elmore, who had run popular pizzeria 40 North.

The restaurant, which took its name from the palm trees on the property, took over what had been the shuttered Mission Dogs hot dog restaurant, which closed in 2022.

Bufalina opened in 2013 on East Cesar Chavez, followed by Bufalina Due up in Brentwood in 2016, and then the original Bufalina relocated to a different East Cesar Chavez address in 2022.

Update, December 7: This article, originally published on October 24, has been updated to include that Palm Pizza is open for dine-in services now too.

2023-12-07T15:33:19Z dg43tfdfdgfd