Eats Beat

What’s ‘Texas-style’ pizza? It’s coming to Fort Worth in an old house off South Main

A pepperoni, mushroom and red-pepper pizza at Sauce’d in Grapevine.
A pepperoni, mushroom and red-pepper pizza at Sauce’d in Grapevine. Handout photo

A Grapevine restaurant known for “Texas-style pizza” will open a bar and pizzeria in a 90-year-old historic home in South Main Village.

The Sauce’d House, 304 W. Cannon St., will be an expanded version of Sauce’d, a downtown Grapevine pizza takeout shop, owner Conner Gildenblatt said.

The Sauce’d House replaces Cannon Chinese Kitchen in a 1936-vintage home and patio. The location is 1 mile south of downtown, in the southside two blocks west of South Main Street near Rahr & Sons Brewing.

Gildenblatt, a marketing pro and former high school hockey star, said the new location will serve burgers, beer and wine along with Sauce’d’s Grapevine menu of New York-style thin crust or “Texas-style” pizza.

A pepperoni, mushroom and red-pepper pizza at Sauce’d in Grapevine.
A pepperoni, mushroom and red-pepper pizza at Sauce’d in Grapevine. Handout photo

Family members experimented with a “Texas-style” pizza with a stretched, rolled garlic-butter crust, Gildenblatt said.

They added it to the menu the week they took over a New York-style pizza-and-pasta shop and opened the Grapevine Sauc’d at 110 N. Main St. at Northwest Highway.

Sauce’d’s menu features contemporary toppings and clever $18-$24 combinations such as the “Bee Sting,” with soppressata, jalapenos and hot honey, or the “Texican,” with seasoned beef, mozzarella, lettuce, tomato and Doritos.

A “Smokey the Pie” has Italian sausage and roasted red pepper with barbecue sauce. The “Backyard Luau” has grilled chicken with barbecue sauce and pineapple.

A veggie pizza (foreground) with a half barbecue chicken-pineapple at Sauce’d in Grapevine.
A veggie pizza (foreground) with a half barbecue chicken-pineapple at Sauce’d in Grapevine. Bud Kennedy bud@star-telegram.com

All the pizzas come in either “Texas-style” or the familiar 12-inch “New York-style” crust. The New York pizzas are also sold by the slice.

Side items in Grapevine include salads and fries, a keeper for The Sauce’d House.

The Fort Worth location has a large patio facing Rahr, perfect for pizza, wings and beer.

Gildenblatt closed a Sauce’d location on Midway Road in north Dallas in favor of focusing on the new South Main Village location, he said.

The Sauce’d House will replace a Chinese restaurant on West Cannon Street.
The Sauce’d House will replace a Chinese restaurant on West Cannon Street. Bud Kennedy bud@star-telegram.com

“We came down here a few times and realized this is where we need to be,” he said.

The neighborhood is currently served by the stone-oven pizzas from the Back Room bar at Funky Picnic, 401 Bryan Ave. A Cane Rosso location is not far away on West Magnolia Avenue, and a location of Dallas-based Pie Tap is coming soon.

“We’ve met a lot of good people here, and it’s exciting to be close to Rahr,” he said.

If you’re wondering what “Texas-style” means, Gildenblatt described it as a stretched and folded crust similar to what’s served at the 10 area Mama’s Pizza locations or the long-ago Gepetto’s in Arlington..

Sauce’d is a small Grapevine pizza shop on Northwest Highway at Main Street.
Sauce’d is a small Grapevine pizza shop on Northwest Highway at Main Street. Bud Kennedy bud@star-telegram.com

Mama’s double-mozzarella version has been voted Fort Worth’s best for most of its 54-year history. (So I guess we can say the late Catherine “Mama” Biggs’ Connecticut pizza, always described by Mama’s as “East Coast style,” is now officially “Texas-style.”)

“Texas has always has restaurants with folded crust,” he said.

On a recent trip to Sauce’d in Grapevine, the pizza didn’t resemble Mama’s. But it’s a good pizza on its own with clever options, like if you could get premium toppings on a New York-style crust.

The Grapevine location is open for lunch and dinner daily; 817-527-6009, sauced.pizza.

This story was originally published November 7, 2022 at 5:30 AM.

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Bud Kennedy is celebrating his 40th year writing about restaurants in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He has written the “Eats Beat” dining column in print since 1985 and online since 1992 — that’s more than 3,000 columns about Texas cafes, barbecue, burgers and where to eat. Support my work with a digital subscription
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