It’s funny how things happen sometimes. You make your plans, set a course and all of sudden half a decade or so later, find yourself in a completely different place than you envisioned. Sometimes it’s work related, sometimes it’s a relationship or a marriage. For all of the best intentions many of us have, life has a way of writing its own script.
You can count Chris Dickerson among those people here in Savannah. Like so many others, the city just kind of “happened’ to him. Now, a handful of years later, he is a few months away from opening his own pizza shop in Savannah’s Starland District. Along the Bull Street corridor between 37th street and Victory Drive. 2220 to be exact. Near the corner of 39th street.
That block will include a new tiki bar owned by the same guys behind Alley Cat Lounge downtown Savannah and as well as upscale Latin concept being developed by Chazito’s, the Puerto Rican Pride of Pooler.
Twelve months from now, that block will look very different than it does today.
“I moved here for my son a few years ago.” Dickerson told me over coffee downtown a few days back. “I always liked Savannah. I used to come here back in the 90’s on my one day off from The Cloister, park at a meter and sleep in my car.” he says, pointing out toward Bull Street in the heart of historic district.
The Cloister he refers to is, of course, the one down the coast on Sea Island. One of coastal Georgia’s most prestigious locations. Chris served as a formal apprentice there for a full year and a half before returning to his native Jacksonville. “I was as far in the trenches as you can get.” he says. “I learned a lot.” Just don’t call him chef. He prefers Chris.
One of the things he learned was that he liked Savannah. Quite a bit actually. He took a closer look at opening some sort of restaurant here in early 2000’s, but never pulled the trigger. “It didn’t really crystalize until my son was born.” he says.
For the last decade or so, Chris and his business partners have been successful in Jacksonville with a concept called “Corner Taco.” The original plan was to bring something like that here to Savannah.
“While I was looking around for a spot” Chris says “Bull Street Taco opened as well as El Coyote over on Victory Drive. Both of those guys do a great job, so we had to reassess what we wanted to do.”
The re-assessment resulted in the creation of Squirrel’s Pizza. “Squirrel was my nickname in college.”
I will let him tell you exactly where that nickname came from and how much beer was involved.
“I’ve always wanted to do pizza” he says. “Over the years, I’ve played with it, learned the skills and prepared myself for the eventuality of doing pizza.” He just didn’t think it would be here in Savannah. That’s how it goes. “I’ve worked on these recipes for years.” he adds.
The goal has never been to re-create anything you will find in Naples or in New York City for that matter. “To me, Neapolitan pizza is soggy. We will have great ingredients, but my pizza will be much crispier.” he says.
“I’m not looking to conform to any rules. My only goal is taste and texture. It might upset some people who are into authenticity, but I just want a good product.” he says. “Everyone is trying to re-create a taste of Italy, but you won’t see photos of Vespas or anything like that at Squirrel’s.”
Sauces, he says will all be made in house. Toppings will be the best he can find and still keep his pizzas affordable. His biggest expense has been the oven, purchased from a reputable company in New York City. An oven he spent nearly 4 months training with in Queens following the purchase.
“It will be our only cooking source.”
There will be some salads as well as chicken wings, but not in the flavors you would expect. Calabrian Chili wings are first. All of them made in that same pizza oven.
Of course, like any new business they will evolve with demand and even plan to offer delivery in some form. Just not day one. They want to make sure they have their in-house systems down first before they start sending pies out the door for delivery.
“We have lots of flexibility in what we want to do.” Chris says. “We are really excited to be here.”
Look for Squirrel’s Pizza to open sometime in the Spring. Of course, we’ll keep you posted.
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