San Francisco Food Blog

Andrew B./Yelp

The former Spud's in South Berkeley will offer N.Y.-style pizzas with Cali toppings.

​Looks like South Berkeley is set to become Ground Zero for the next wave of Bay Area pizza frenzy. Hot on the heels of Emilia's (2995 Shattuck at Ashby) comes word of Addie's Pizza Pie, a collaboration between Thomas Schnetz (Dona Tomas, Flora, Tacubaya) and pastry chef Jennifer Millar, owner of Sweet Adeline Bakeshop (3350 Adeline at 63rd St., Berkeley). The location is 3290 Adeline (at Ashby), the historic bank building that was home to Spud's Pizza. Barring delays (pretty much inevitable with new restaurants), Millar is hoping for a February opening.

The concept? Pizza by the round or the slice, including the ability to customize with toppings. "It'll be New York style, but with California ingredients, not wood-fired," Millar told SFoodie. Salads, and an emphasis on both takeout and family-style eat-in. And something else: frozen custard. "It's sort of an East Coast-Midwestern ice cream type," explained Miller, who's spent time in both upstate New York and Wisconsin. "It's an ice cream enriched with egg yolks, churned at a slower speed, and held at a warmer temperature." In other words, a particularly luscious soft serve. And the restaurant will do what Millar calls "concretes," -- i.e., mix-ins.

Millar is 50-50 with Schnetz (Dona Savitsky, Schnetz's partner in other projects, isn't involved), who's also designing the space. Millar says the idea is to work with the building's classic elements (arched windows, terrazzo and marble floors) to approximate an old-school Italian restaurant.