New Modesto pizza-by-the-slice restaurant opens from same team as planned steakhouse
As the saying goes, pizza — even when it’s bad — is still pretty good. But, good news, downtown Modesto’s newest pizza spot is far from bad.
Instead the new restaurant, from the same team behind the upcoming high-end steakhouse downtown, is offering tasty handcrafted and locally sourced pies and slices. Stuart’s Pizza on 10th Street had its soft opening over Memorial Day weekend and has been taking advantage of its sidewalk-facing takeout window to offer curbside ordering and pickup during the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.
The eatery is the only downtown Modesto spot dedicated to pizza-by-the-slice and one of the few offering the big-city staple in the region. Business partners in the project, Michael Goularte and Hugo Zuniga, were busy working in the kitchen during its opening week.
Valley foodies will remember Goularte as the former executive chef of Modesto’s Galletto’s Ristorante and a former partner in Turlock’s Hauck’s Bar & Grill. He will also be the executive chef for the planned W. Stuart C. Steakhouse in the old World Savings/Wachovia Bank building just a block away on 10th Street across from the Gallo Center for the Arts.
The men are also part of the team that launched a free downtown shuttle last December. While it has been been off the streets because of a collision and now the coronavirus, they hope to have it back when the pandemic subsides fully.
With their steakhouse project now delayed and likely not opening until 2021, Goularte said they were pleased to debut the pizza spot instead. He said he hopes it will introduce people to their food and flavors as well as promote its partnerships with local food manufacturers.
Takeout offered through sidewalk window
Stuart’s Pizza, named like the future steakhouse after lead investor Jaime Jimenez’s great-grandfather, William Stuart Cunningham, is offering slices, calzones and whole pies. If you take home any food, you’ll find Cunningham’s intentionally over-sized head grinning back at you from the boxes. In the coming weeks, they plan to expand the menu with more offerings including appetizers.
The space, sandwiched between Picasso’s and Greens, was formerly a taqueria but sat vacant for about two years. Currently, Stuart’s Pizza is only offering takeout, but once its dining room opens, it will fit 95 at full capacity.
The restaurant has opened with about five employees, and assorted wives and family members helping out. Many of the pies are named after the staff’s significant others including The Aly, named after Zuniga’s wife (a vegetarian pie with pesto cream sauce, mozarella, olives, tomatoes, bell peppers, spinach, basil, red onion and arugula), and The JJ, named after Goularte’s wife (a margherita pizza with tomato sauce, basil, burrata cheese and olive oil).
Whole specialty pies run anywhere from $17 for 12 inches to $36 for the feeds-a-small-army sized 26 inches. You can also customize and build-your-own toppings for anywhere from $10 to $33.
Still, for the busy downtown Modesto lunchtime crowd, it will no doubt be the slices that attract the most interest. Slices are cut from the monster-sized 26-inch whole pies, and come out a robust 13-inches. Goularte said part of the reason they wanted to open the pizza place is to give people an affordable and quick downtown lunch spot.
The slices start at $4.50 for plain and run up to $6.50 for three toppings. A combo of a slice plus a drink comes in at a thrifty-yet-filling $7.50 for lunch.
Local food partnership touted with pies
As for what’s in and on the pies, Goularte said they pride themselves on their local partnerships with food growers and manufacturers. They’re using an exclusive brand of tomatoes from Modesto-based tomato processing behemoth Stanislaus Food Products, as well using Lodi-based Corto Olive Oil. Modesto-based Ratto Bros. and Oakdale’s E&H Farms are also providing fresh produce like basil and mushrooms.
“We want to be as local as possible with our pizzas,” Goularte said. “We wanted to do something special and unique with them, and not just be the standard pizza. We’re really focusing on the pizza now, and will add more items as we go.”
Goularte and his team makes the dough themselves as well as the marinara sauce and various other sauces from pesto to ranch.
Having tried a couple slices (for science, I’m a trained pizzaologist with decades of experience) the freshness comes through. I’d also suggest trying their daily specials, which will change frequently and with the seasons. The day I visited that was a pie with house-made alfredo sauce, asparagus, bacon, chili flakes, arugula, parmesan and sunny side-up eggs on top.
The restaurant also isn’t shy about rolling out some luxury ingredients. On Memorial Day, they offered a lobster-tail pizza which sold out in less than two hours. But don’t worry, if you want plain old pepperoni person, they’ve got that too.
Stuart’s Pizza, 959 10th St. in Modesto, is open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Saturday for takeout. For more information, call 209-408-8397 or visit www.stuartspizza.com.
This story was originally published May 28, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
