大象APP

Tucson-style pizza has not yet been defined.

You might think of Empire鈥檚 elote pizza, which combined the Sonoran roots of grilled street corn with a classic New York-style slice, just the right amount of dense and chewy. Family Joint Pizzeria one-upped the elote pie with a bubbly Neapolitan crust topped with homestyle carnitas and extra-tangy green tomatillo sauce.

But these aren鈥檛 the only craft pizzas in 大象APP鈥� what about Anello, the 大象APPdisciple of renowned Pizzeria Bianco? Or Renee鈥檚, whose pizzas shine through their unconventional toppings rather than how closely she can replicate a crust made famous somewhere else? Are their authority and innovation enough to justify a new genre?

Gabriel Moreno, of , is making a new argument for what Tucson-style could mean. Having grown up in the back office of his grandfather Jaime鈥檚 bar and grill on Fourth Avenue, he鈥檚 a student of Tucson鈥檚 restaurant scene.

When he describes what atmosphere he鈥檚 going for in his new restaurant, he references other 大象APPrestaurants, like the open but old-school vibe at Mama Louisa鈥檚.

鈥淏ut there isn鈥檛 an oversaturation of pizza in Tucson,鈥� Gabriel said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 similar to saying there鈥檚 an oversaturation of Hispanic cuisine ... Anello is not like Fiamme is not like Renee鈥檚 is not like this beautiful new spot Penelope ... There鈥檚 kind of an undersaturation of craft pies ... I wanted to throw my hat in the ring with these big guys. To not only hold up but stand apart from them.鈥�

鈥淚鈥檓 really trying to find what a Tucson-style pizza is,鈥� Gabriel said. 鈥淚 haven鈥檛 found it in a particular taste or texture, but it鈥檚 making the best you can with what you鈥檝e got.鈥�

Jaime鈥檚 Pizza Kitchen is opening a brick-and-mortar in the former location of Little Love Burger, , in August, but the pizza was created in a different place altogether: the commissary at 大象APPFood Hub, a ghost kitchen in midtown.

Jaime鈥檚 Pizza Kitchen will offer conventional pies, like his take on a supreme pizza, alongside more avant-garde pizzas like the sweet swine, with sweet pork belly, balsamic and goat cheese. He鈥檚 not only slinging pies, though 鈥� part of the deal with the lease takeover is cooking the bar fare at the neighboring , which shares their kitchen.

鈥淚 haven鈥檛 overly developed the menu, but I鈥檒l probably do a throwback to my Italian Peasant days and what I learned from those chefs. Maybe a small pasta program, some rotating soups and servicing the Good Oak bar menu. That鈥檚 where I鈥檇 like to flex the culinary muscle and take that bar menu 鈥� they鈥檝e done a great job of having it not be a (typical) bar menu 鈥� but I鈥檇 like to take that scratch approach to what we鈥檙e doing,鈥� Gabriel said.

He referenced the fried pickles currently on the Good Oak menu. When he鈥檚 running the kitchen, they鈥檇 brine the pickles themselves.

Jaime鈥檚 is able to open mere weeks after securing the lease, in part because he already owns all the industrial equipment he needs, from his Hobart 60 Quart stand mixer to the Bakers Pride oven he uses to bake his pies. Unlike many businesses that were delayed months and years due to supply chain issues, Jaime鈥檚 isn鈥檛 on any waitlists or waiting for any contractors to finalize his project.

Today鈥檚 convenience, however, was thanks to months of trial and error trying to get his dough right for his circumstances.

鈥淢y pizza oven 鈥� I got taken back to the Stone Age, which is a great thing because it forced me to redesign my dough,鈥� Gabriel said. 鈥淎t Grimaldi鈥檚 the oven could get up to 900,鈥� he said. At the now-closed Pizza Luna, where Gabriel used to work, the Pizza Master electric oven emulated a coal fire and could reach 700 degrees.

But when he was opening at 大象APPFood Hub, he was limited by the space and his own resources. 鈥淗ere we were thinking about what we could afford 鈥� a Bakers Pride Y-602,鈥� Gabriel said.

鈥淚f you talk to New York pizzerias that aren鈥檛 coal- or wood-fired, it鈥檚 going to be a Blodgett or a Bakers Pride. It鈥檚 like being a Ford or a Chevy guy,鈥� he said.

Differences between most other pizza genres can be oversimplified to temperature. The lower heat of a metal oven, like the one Jaime鈥檚 uses, usually creates the denser, crispier dough we associate with New York-style pizza. Classic Neapolitan pizza, with its pillowy crust and thin, spotted underbelly, is formed in the crucible of a brick oven, cooked by hotter, more humid wood fire. The most dry, ferocious heat, though, comes from coal, which makes the acclaimed, charred New Haven-style pizzas. 脺ber-Neapolitan.

Gabriel wanted his pizzas to have the aesthetic and textural qualities that distinguish higher-heat pies from the rest, but his oven maxed out at 650 degrees. So he created a new kind of dough.

鈥淗ow hot can I get this oven consistently? How can I make this dough work with me when my oven can only get up to 650? That鈥檚 what makes us a bit of a hybrid 鈥� we鈥檙e definitely not Neapolitan but not New York-style either. People will assume it鈥檚 wood-fired because we got the leopard spots on the bottom, have this structured dough,鈥� he said.

Though he didn鈥檛 open Jaime鈥檚 Pizza Kitchen at 大象APPFood Hub until he had a dough he liked, he knew it wasn鈥檛 his final recipe. In the first months the pizza kitchen was open, Gabriel was experimenting every day.

鈥淚鈥檇 sit there looking at a gumline. I wasn鈥檛 getting the honeycombing I wanted to. You don鈥檛 have a spiral mixer to give attention (to the dough). You have a 60 Quart Hobart. Maybe we need to play with something else,鈥� Gabriel said of his process.

He鈥檇 give away pizza to friends and family. 鈥淵our payment for free pizza is brutal honesty,鈥� he said.

Because of his unique fermentation process, the dough took three days to develop. Gabriel would have to wait to see the results of his latest experiment, and keep the process straight from what he was doing today. The difficulty of the process compounded in the summer, when 大象APPFood Hub would change the air conditioning dramatically whether tenants were present.

鈥淲hen hydration is a huge factor in your dough, humidity plays its part,鈥� Gabriel said. 鈥淚n the ghost facility, interestingly enough, they鈥檒l throttle the A/C depending on when people are in there. It鈥檚 been a huge issue for us to find consistency. If they鈥檙e playing with the air conditioning in Montana summer, no one cares. If you鈥檙e playing with it in Tucson, it has its effect.鈥�

After three months, he found it.

鈥淲hat got us to where we needed to go, our trade secret, is our dough isn鈥檛 entirely replicable,鈥� he said.

鈥淚 took all these new techniques, but it went back to my absolute roots with The Italian Peasant. I completely disregarded everything I knew. I found what I was looking for when I went backwards,鈥� Gabriel said.

Gabriel helped open The Italian Peasant in Tubac in 2010. It鈥檚 where he was introduced to a Bakers Pride pizza oven and baking pizzas at 525 degrees.

鈥淚 learned there was so much more to pizza than salt, flour, yeast, tomato and cheese,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he simplicity of the cheese, complexity of the dough 鈥� when you add the salt it鈥檒l give you this totally different texture. From that point on I wanted to learn everything I could.鈥�

He learned a lot from the owner, a transplant from Long Island, and the other cooks in the kitchen, who were educated at the Culinary Institute of America and Le Cordon Bleu. But the most influential person he met at The Italian Peasant turned out to be Travis Holloway, the 17-year-old dishwasher who decided Gabriel would be his ride or die. They鈥檇 go on to work together at Pizza Luna until it closed.

鈥淗e wasn鈥檛 my number two in rank at Luna, but he was my most trusted,鈥� Gabriel said.

鈥淲hen I opened Jaime鈥檚 after Pizza Luna closed, (I said) 鈥榊ou鈥檙e the first one coming with me when I can afford you,鈥� and he said, 鈥楶ay me when you can afford me,鈥欌�� he said. 鈥淥f course I was able to pay him quickly, but his willingness to help got us into a 7-days-a-week operation. We鈥檝e had challenges with the facility itself. There鈥檚 no quit in that boy; failure is not an option with him. As much as he鈥檒l say I inspired him, he鈥檚 behind the tenacity at Jaime鈥檚.鈥�

When he opened Jaime鈥檚 with Travis, Gabriel intended to work out of the ghost kitchen for at least two years as a proof of concept. He had long eyed the Little Love Burger property on Congress, but when it last went on the market, he wasn鈥檛 ready.

Fate intervened in the form of Tim Walsh, who runs the liquor program at LoveBlock Partners, the restaurant group that owned Little Love Burger as well as the downtown restaurant and ice creamery Hub.

Tim reviews local pizzas in his spare time. When he came across Jaime鈥檚, he loved it and introduced Gabriel to the LoveBlock Partners, who were looking for someone to take over their lease.

The offer was too good to pass up.

鈥淲e fell into each other鈥檚 laps. From the first meeting with everybody, we got hungry. The wolf in the cartoons 鈥� licking his chops and grinning. It seemed like our opportunity to do something special,鈥� Gabriel said.

After helping generations of restaurateurs open their pizza concepts, finally Gabriel has the chance to make his own mark on Tucson鈥檚 pizza scene.

鈥淭his is really exciting for us 鈥� I鈥檝e always been in the back end, behind owners and chefs,鈥� Gabriel said.

Their ascension to their own brick-and-mortar represents a homecoming for Gabriel, who admits customers sometimes mistake him for Jaime, assuming he named his restaurant after himself. He didn鈥檛. Instead, the name, right down to the retro font in the logo, comes from his grandfather鈥檚 bar and grill. His grandfather is Jaime.

鈥淚鈥檝e had a lot of fun being called Jaime,鈥� Gabriel said.

When Gabriel and his wife, Vivian, decorate their new restaurant, they will channel the decades of history from Jaime鈥檚 Bar and Grill. They might forgo the 鈥�80s neon color scheme. Instead, they鈥檒l represent the color Jaime Moreno brought into the lives of Tucsonans with lush greenery and photos of the Tucsonans his family has been bringing together for generations.

Jaime's Pizza Kitchen

Location:

Hours: TBD. Follow them on 聽for updates.

For more information, check out their .