In the back of his mind, Matthew Foster always wanted to make pizza for a living.
For years, he’s been obsessed with “The Pizza Show,” on which pizzaiolo Frank Pinello travels the world on a quest for great pie stories. While a server at Ammazza, a Neapolitan-style pizza parlor in the Old Fourth Ward, Foster spent so much time gazing into the kitchen that he eventually talked his way in.
“Pizza has always been my favorite food,” said the Atlanta native, who has an extensive production resume in the entertainment industry. “I always said, once I retired from whatever movie gig I had, making a bunch of money, I would retire and open up a pizzeria. I don’t care if it’s prosperous. I just like pizza that much. I can go in there and eat pizza for free as much as I want.”
Credit: Wendell Brock
Credit: Wendell Brock
Last year, when the pandemic brought his gig with Nick Cannon’s “Wild ’N Out” tour to a halt, Foster found himself with time on his hands. Egged on by friends, he decided to try his hand at pizza.
Watching Pinello, he observed that many pizza capitals, from Naples to New York, have their own style. His challenge was to invent a pie that captures Atlanta, which he thinks is more famous for Southern comfort food and barbecue than pizza.
It didn’t take him long to identify his signature flavor profile: lemon pepper.
Credit: Drew Amandolia
Credit: Drew Amandolia
“Everybody loves lemon-pepper wings,” said Foster, 31, a Grady High School graduate who has studied at Pepperdine University, Morehouse College and Georgia State University. With the iconic seasoning as his muse, Foster created his lemon pepper wet pie, a pizza that packs a zing and is adorned with two flats and a couple of lemon wedges.
Doing business as Phew’s Pies, a reference to his nickname, Foster first advertised on social media. Response was slow, but when rap star Killer Mike retweeted a video of the lemon-pepper pie in June, Foster was deluged. Overnight, his hobby became a business, which now encompasses a virtual pizzeria five nights a week and a Tuesday pop-up at Boggs Social & Supply.
Credit: Drew Amandolia
Credit: Drew Amandolia
Foster calls his style metropolitan, a riff on the Neapolitan influence and his urban roots. “The process for the dough and the sauce-making is Neapolitan,” he said. (He uses double zero flour and San Marzano tomatoes.) “However, I am not Italian. Not everything I do is going to be traditionally Italian. I’m influenced by a more inner-city urban feel.”
Since getting serious about his craft, Foster has had to upgrade his equipment. Where he once baked pies out of his home kitchen, he now owns a pair of Gozney Roccboxes, portable ovens that can bake a pie in minutes.
Though he still makes pizzas for pickup at his southwest Atlanta home, he keeps the ovens outside. (He jokes that he has PTSD from last summer’s heat.) He said his neighbors, though concerned at first about parking and traffic, have taken a liking to the aroma of cheese, tomato and basil wafting from his backyard.
As for the menu, he has expanded his repertoire to include oxtail-ricotta, hot honey and pesto versions, along with classics, like sausage and pepperoni.
When I tried his signature lemon-pepper pizza, one thing that impressed me was his wonderfully seasoned, lightly breaded, super-tender wings. I asked if they were baked. Turns out, they’re air-fried.
Would he ever consider selling the wings separately? “People ask every single time!” Foster said, adding that a typical exchange goes like this: “Your pizza is fine. I know you are going to do great with it, but if that don’t work, brother, you can sell wings! And, can I please get some more?”
Eventually, Foster expects to offer wings, but there will be rules.
You’ll have to buy a lemon-pepper pie first, then add chicken. Otherwise, you’d miss the point. “I’m a pizza man. I’m stoked that I hit it with this wing,” he said. “But, first, I want to get better at what I’m already good at.”
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Credit: Wendell Brock
Credit: Wendell Brock
PHEW’S PIES
Menu: pizza
Alcohol: no
What I ordered: lemon pepper wet, oxtail-ricotta and veggie pies. The lemon pepper was a tad salty, but, man, those wings. The crusts can be a little bland and a little blackened, but this is a very promising upstart pizza maker with a unique concept.
Service options: takeout only; order online or via text for pickup
Outdoor dining: no
Mask policy: staff wears masks and prefers that customers do, too
Address, phone: 873 Victoria Place SW, Atlanta; 404-333-2101
Hours: 5 p.m.-10 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays
Website: phewpies.com
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