‘Hold my beer,’ ‘Hold my pizza’: East End Brewing in Larimer selling pizzas to complement its brews

The pizza box incorporates a little humor.

Just look on the side: “Hold my pizza.” And across the bottom: “If you can read this the toppings fell off.”

Incorporating lightheartedness into food containers – just like with beverage packages — is what people associate with East End Brewing Co. in Larimer.

“It’s always been about having fun with beer and now it’s about having fun with beer and pizza,” said owner Scott Smith. “The combination is extra fun.”

Since the closure of food venue Larder inside the brewery during the pandemic, Smith has been looking for a way to use the kitchen space. He hired chef Sheryl Johnston to create a Pizza of the Week. For the few months Johnston has been using seasonal ingredients to make a bahn mi sandwich pizza, an eggplant Parmesan pizza, a Reuben pizza, and, of course in Pittsburgh, a pierogi pizza that was built to pair with the brewery’s Grätzer Beer, a traditional Polish smoked wheat beer.

“We’re keeping the menu pretty simple, focusing on a rustic, thick-crust pizza, that we offer in just a few configurations at a time,” Smith said. “There is a classic cheese pizza, a pepperoni pizza, and our ever -changing ‘Pizza of the Week,’ which keeps things fresh and interesting each week. And of course, we offer just about everything on our menu in vegetarian and vegan forms too.”

The new venture is called “East End Chewing,” a name Smith said was the idea of his wife of 25 years, Julie Smith. He said his sense of humor over all these years has had an effect on her.

“There is nothing better than pizza and beer,” said Smith on Friday. “I eat a lot of pizza, and Pittsburgh has so many great pizza places.”

 

He said what he likes best about the pies are the thick crust, which is made by Pittsburgh-based Prohibition Pastries. The pizza is just as good when it’s hot out of the oven when it’s room temperature and even cold, Smith said.

The pies are cut in six pieces and cost $13 for cheese, $15 for pepperoni and $17 for a “Pizza of the Week.”

Pizza is available for dine in or carryout. There is no pizza delivery at this time. They originally made pizza boxes by cutting up beer cases before collaborating with Bell Containers, in Cuddy, to make them and Commonwealth Press of Pittsburgh’s Hilltop neighborhood to create the design.

 

They plan to release a pickle-inspired pizza around the time of Picklesburgh, a three-day specialty food festival Aug. 20-22 in Downtown Pittsburgh. Also, East End has teamed with Primanti Bros. to create a pickle beer. It will be released Aug. 11 at East End and Primanti locations and will be available a week later in select Giant Eagle stores. Smith said he has the 100,000th can that came off his newest canning machine — a pickle beer. It has lemon peppercorn and dill made from 1,600 pounds of cucumbers.

Just like beer can be custom-made, so can pizza.

“Pizza is great because it’s a blank canvas,” Smith said. “You can experiment with it and there is a diversity of offerings.”

Similar to the 90 beers East End has been creating for each of Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods.

“I’m not saying we’re committing to make a completely unique pizza for each of Pittsburgh’s 90 neighborhoods just yet, but I suppose if we can do it with beer, pizza would not be impossible,” Smith said. “So maybe check back when we’re 90 weeks into this? Sheryl has already created more than 30, one per week. So it could happen!”

East End Brewing Co. is located at 147 Julius St. in Larimer.

Hours are 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, noon to 10 p.m. Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday