A New Jersey native who ran several successful restaurants in the Golden State has come back home to open a new outpost of the Bay Area favorite Pollara Pizza.
Earlier this month, the East Coast version of Pollara Pizza launched at 76 Monmouth Street in Red Bank. The business comes courtesy of owner Jon Smulewitz, who grew up in New Brunswick before heading west for his culinary career.
Smulewitz helped build a variety of restaurants in California, including the Italian eatery Dopo and the acclaimed wine and salumi bar Adesso, which received a James Beard nomination in 2010. The original Pollara Pizza was situated in Berkeley, California, and later expanded to San Francisco.
The West Coast’s loss is New Jersey’s gain, as the newly opened Pollara Pizza serves house-made ricotta made daily, house-made sausages, and arborio rice balls with pork ragu. Their pizza is still a star and available by the slice or pie at the restaurant, which has an online ordering page set up on their website.
Headlines of the pies include a spicy sausage variety that is an early favorite, as is their piccante pie with house-made pepperoni, grana Padano, and olive oil. Pollara Pizza’s other big hit has been their scaccia, a Sicilian street food that consists of unleavened flatbread stuffed with a variety of fillings.
Pollara Pizza is currently closed Mondays and Tuesdays during their launch, but otherwise operates from 4 p.m. until 9 p.m., with an extra hour of service until 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights.
The restaurant intends to be open seven days a week with lunch and dinner service as they ramp up their operations. They can be followed on Instagram at the handle @pollarapizzeria.
