A new pizza parlor in Cleveland鈥檚 Waterloo Arts District features a chef with a life-long obsession.
It's part of one man鈥檚 never-ending quest for the perfect pie.
His eatery鈥檚 called but he鈥檚 not a citizen himself, just a permanent resident. 鈥淢y name is Vytaurus Sasnauskas. I鈥檓 from Lithuania. But I can be simply called V.鈥�
Simplicity, is this pizza pundit鈥檚 credo.
鈥淭ake three ingredients, flour, salt, water, and just make something to sing with the just few ingredients on top.鈥�
Simplicity in preparation and诲茅肠辞谤
Justas basic is V.鈥檚 pizza place on Waterloo Road across the street from theBeachlandBallroom. Not a lot of诲茅肠辞谤, just posters ofJimiHendrix,CheGuevara, and other revolutionaries on a side wall. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not a restaurant. It鈥檚 kind of come in, eat, and leave kind of place. Or if you want to hang out and talk you鈥檙e welcome to. And we had this idea to build the bar around the pizza. I just wanted people to feel the fire.鈥�
Citizen Pie seats about 25, and it gets cozy at the pizza counter in winter, when the wood-fired oven鈥檚 as hot as V. wants it. 鈥淏etween 850 and 920 degrees on the floor and over 1000 degrees on the dome.鈥�
But every time the door opens at the little caf茅, V. frets about temperature change. 鈥淒ough is a moving target here. Everything is a moving target. Oven, you have to always pay attention on when to throw the log.
We don鈥檛 have a knob there to turn it up and down to try to keep at a consistent temperature. Everything comes by feel.鈥�
Life-long obsession
The feeling he has for pizza is as palpable as hispillowydough. 鈥淚 been making pizza all my life, and started as a little kidschmearingketchup and hot dogs on top of a baguette, and then became hobby and obsession.鈥�
This continued through his teen years. 鈥淥ne of my first dates I tried to impress and make at home. Pizza wasn鈥檛 that good.鈥�
He had topped it with cauliflower. But he claims the girl was still impressed, and he鈥檚 baked thousands of pizzas since then. At Citizen Pie as many as 50 an hour.
Vytaurus Sasnaukas arrived in Cleveland 20 years ago as a classically-trained chef and went on to study and teach in Chesterland at the
Focusing on what鈥檚controllable
Hewas chef-partner for 7 years at the former Americano atBratenahlPlace before it closed last year. He says he doesn鈥檛 miss the stress. The man鈥檚 a perfectionist and controlling every aspect of the business was too frustrating. 鈥淚 realized that I like to do just one or two things simpler and better and perfect.鈥�
He loves the challenge of trying to bake a perfect pizza, but he鈥檚 never satisfied. 鈥淥nce you reach perfect it鈥檚 not perfect. There is another level.鈥�
He says even the finest ingredients have to be in perfect harmony. 鈥淚t is so hard to balance the texture of the dough, the lightness of the dough, the acidity sweetness of the tomatoes, the lactose sweetness of the cheese, and the aroma of basil. If you鈥檙e not going to understand that you cannot be good cook.鈥�
Ready in less than a minute
V. lifted his peel to put a pie deep into the fiery oven less than a minute ago. He rotates it, keeping a constant trained eye on it.鈥�Ideally we want the crust to bake, cook it through, tomato sauce little caramelize and evaporate, and cheese just to start melt, never brown, never separate its own fat from it.鈥�
Within a minute it鈥檚 done. Most customers would take it home in a box, but we purists enjoy it at the counter, hot out of the oven. 鈥淢aybe rest 20 seconds,鈥� V. advises. 鈥淭his pizza does not travel well. Ideally you want to eat it right now.鈥�
V. opened Citizen Pie last year around Thanksgiving and recently got a liquor license. Along with a Sicilian Pinot Grigio or other adult beverage you can get 9 kinds of red pizzas, 9 kinds of white ones, and two kinds of calzones.
Pistachios ontop
Oneof the white pizzas on Citizen Pie鈥檚 current menu is named for V.鈥檚 former restaurant. 鈥淎mericano contains pistachio cream, sausage, the one we get from New York, our fresh mozzarella, finished with crushed pistachios on top and red onion.鈥�
But the chef鈥檚 personal favorite is his simplest pie, the Margherita.鈥淢y recipe is simple: take flour, salt, and water, make a crust, dress it with tomatoes, basil, and cheese and bake it in a 900 degree oven. That鈥檚 about it.鈥�
He refined it after his quest for perfection took him to Italy. 鈥淚 learned the philosophy and simplicity and beauty about the ones that were being made in Naples.鈥�
His flour comes from there, too. 鈥淚t鈥檚 milled specially for the high temperature ovens, and it鈥檚 pure ground wheat with no additives, nothing added. It鈥檚 a very low ash content flour, perfect for this style of pizza we do.鈥�
His StefanoFerraraoven comes from Naples, too. 鈥淚t weighs 6,500 pounds and it鈥檚 built from volcanic soil over the Vesuvius Mountain by hand. And it鈥檚 not made in a factory. It鈥檚 made by a man who his family generations make these over the years and years.鈥�
Neo-Neapolitan
But what he bakes in it is not strictly Neapolitan pizza. 鈥淚鈥檓 just making pizza. The one I like to eat and serve. You see most of the places they trying to do authentic Neapolitan pizza, Italian, Sicilian you name it, and they鈥檙e like 鈥極h, they don鈥檛 put pepperoni on pizza, and that鈥檚 why we鈥檙e not doing that.鈥� Well, guess what? I like pepperoni on my pizza, and so probably you do, too.鈥�
The pepperoni he uses is smoked. One of his business partners, Claudia Young, gets it from a Waterloo Arts District neighbor. 鈥淥ur bacon comes from R. and D. right next door, our pepperoni and salami comes from Rudell鈥檚 right down the street.鈥�
The most expensive pizza at Citizen Pie, is the $16 mushroom pie with brie, porcini, bacon, red onion, and truffle oil. The Puttanesca is priced at $15. But Young says quality costs. 鈥淥ur anchovies cost us almost 2 dollars for 4 anchovies. We tried less expensive anchovies, but they weren鈥檛 anything that we wanted to put on our Puttanesca pizza. So we just added a dollar onto the pizza, and we kept the anchovies that we thought were spectacular.鈥�
Pleasing connoisseurs
Customer Sherry NobleShylaofBrecksvillethinks so, too. 鈥淲e鈥檙e kind of pizza connoisseurs. We travel the world in search of good pies. It鈥檚 good to see that we鈥檙e getting some of that here in Cleveland, now. They鈥檝e got the crust. Kind of burnt edges. It鈥檚 probably not for everybody, but for people who really like the Neapolitan style of pies this is very good.鈥�
Citizen Pie鈥檚 usually open from noon till 9 or until they run out of dough. Weather conditions affect the natural fermentation process V. uses. 鈥淪o it鈥檚 not like I鈥檓 making cookie dough here so I can whip it up when I鈥檓 out. Once we out, and we sold out, some people get mad we out."
That鈥檚 against one of the Citizen Pie house rules printed at the bottom of the menu: 鈥淣o extra cheese, no extra sauce, no well done, no half this and half that, and be kind.鈥�
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