Emmy Squared will teach you how to make its pizza at home, and it’s delicious
Charlotte, we are becoming a pizza destination city, with new styles being introduced all the time. Craving pies inspired by New York, Chicago, Naples or Jersey, or how about a Virginia or a Jersey slice? Or, you could take a page from Emmy Squared Pizza’s playbook, and try a “pizza marriage.”
The restaurant, which opened its first Charlotte location earlier this month at 1508 Central Ave., and is working on its second on Hawkins Street in South End location around October, serves a pizza that’s been described as New York-style grandma pie meets Detroit Style pizza. You can expect a fluffy, focaccia-like crust topped with a ring of caramelized crispy-crunchy cheese.
Learn to make Emmy Squared at home
If that sounds delicious, we have some news you can use: You can learn to make it yourself at home.
Emmy Squared is hosting virtual pizza-making classes. The next one is Sept. 23, and if you sign up, you can learn how to make its signature Colony pizza: a spicy, sweet and savory pizza topped with red sauce, mozzarella, crispy pepperoni cups, pickled jalapeños and honey. You’ll also learn how to make lavender lemonade cocktails.
Here’s how it works:
Place your order on Goldbelly (price is $129 and feeds two people). Add a cookbook for $32.
Note: there is a gluten-free option.
Your kit includes almost everything you need to make two Lavender Lemonade cocktails and 1 “Colony” Pizza: Sauce (4 oz.), cheese (1/2 cup), pepperoni (20 slices), Jalapeño (1 oz.), honey (1 bottle).
For the pizza and dough, you’ll provide your own: oven mitts, ladle, spatula, pizza-cutter (or kitchen knife), cutting board, medium-sized mixing bowl, measuring cups and spoons, olive oil, plastic wrap or lid for the mixing bowl
For the cocktail, BYO: Cocktail shaker (or mason jar), something to strain with, something to measure with, tall glasses for the cocktails, ice and bourbon or spirit of choice.
Your kit will arrive on Sept. 22.
You’ll receive instructions to begin preparing the dough 6-8 hours ahead of the class on Sept. 23.
Then on Sept. 23 at 7 p.m., you’ll tune into the provided Zoom link and learn from the best: the co-founder of Emmy Squared, Emily Hyland.
Hyland is a former high school teacher, so when COVID-19 arrived and she decided to start offering virtual classes, it was a natural fit.
“One of the things that’s been nice about Zoom life is that it allows us to be much more in touch with people across the country. So, even after the pandemic, if I want to take a class with my girlfriend in California and my cousin in Maine, it’s easy to connect and do that online,” she told CharlotteFive.
Post-pandemic, Hyland will also plan to offer the classes in person at the Charlotte locations, for birthday parties, corporate gatherings or other fun events.
If pizza isn’t your thing (first of all, are you human?), Emmy Squared is also hosting classes on burger making. Details for the next class aren’t out yet, but stay tuned and we’ll update this space when we know more.
Plaza Midwood, South End neighborhood spots
And if you’re tired of being quarantined in your kitchen, the new Emmy Squared in Plaza Midwood will open just after Labor Day.
With her first Charlotte restaurant, Hyland herself recently moved to the Queen City. She left Brooklyn to plant new roots in South End — near Emmy Squared’s second location. “I’m from the New York area, and I spent almost 20 years between Manhattan and Brooklyn. After the pandemic in Manhattan, it just felt like time for a change and we were opening some new locations. And I was sort of waffling between a few locations, particularly Nashville and Charlotte,” she said. “And then I came down here on a road trip with my fiance and we just had a really good feeling in our gut — and so here we are.”
Becoming a neighborhood restaurant is at the heart of Emmy Squared, Hyland said. “The original restaurant started off as a tiny little hole in the wall in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. It’s a 26-seat restaurant. So it was designed to be a neighborhood spot.”
The Charlotte locations will have the same vibe, she said. “So when you walk in, we want it to feel like it’s your neighborhood, but we wanted it to feel chill and inviting and comfortable. Our service style is professional but casual, so it’s not going to feel stuffy at all. And we hope that it’ll be the type of thing where after you’ve been in a few times, the bartender knows your name, knows your favorite spot at the bar and is already pulling your favorite beer as you’re sitting down.”
Emmy Squared
Location: 1508 Central Ave., Charlotte, NC 28205
Neighborhood: Plaza Midwood
Location: 1932 Hawkins St., Charlotte, NC 28203 (Opening in October)
Neighborhood: South End
Instagram: @emmysquaredpizza
This story was originally published September 1, 2021 at 6:30 AM.
