Nashville-based, hip hop-inspired pizzeria to open first West Coast location in Oak Park

A Tennesee-based pizzeria influenced by throwback hip hop is coming to the West Coast for the first time.

Slim & Husky’s Pizza Beeria is set to open Wednesday in Oak Park, according to a news release. The 2,600-square-foot restaurant and bar, which has baked free pizzas for Sacramento-area organizations, will take over Oakhaus’ former location at 3413 Broadway.

Slim & Husky’s slogan “Pizza Rules Everything Around Me (P.R.E.A.M.)” riffs on the classic Wu-Tang Clan single, and pies like the Cee No Green (ground beef, pepperoni, bacon, Canadian bacon, Italian sausage, cheese and red sauce) and Nothin’ But A “V” Thang (bean ragu, caramelized onions, roasted peppers and corn, spinach and plant-based cheese) nod to those roots as well.

Dressed-up cinnamon rolls like the Halle Berry (blueberry sauce with lemon glaze) or the Ninja Tartle (green apple sauce with jalapeno cream cheese glaze) bookend the pizza and a few salads. Locally produced beer and wine will flow from rotating taps, with Stubborn Soda for non-drinkers.

Longtime friends Clint Gray, EJ Reed and Derrick Moore opened the first Slim & Husky’s in a historically Black, now partially gentrified North Nashville neighborhood in 2017. The three Tennesse State University grads (Reed is “slim”, while Gray and Moore are “husky”) have opened four more locations over the last three years and will launch five more in the next six months.

The owners saw rapidly-changing Oak Park as the right area for their ethos, they said. They’ve decorated the space with murals from Sacramento- and Nashville-based Black artists, and gave out free pizzas to organizations such as the Sacramento Food Bank, Oak Park Community Center and Women’s Civic Improvement Center after a test run Friday.

“We are so excited to be joining the Oak Park family,” Gray wrote in an email to The Sacramento Bee. “We have been looking for the right places to grow, and we felt right away that this neighborhood was the right fit. We think Sacramento is going to love our food, and we love the chance to engage with this community using pizza as our vehicle.”

Slim & Husky’s will have seating for about 50 people outside as well as takeout, catering and third-party delivery, with room for another 50 inside once the coronavirus pandemic subsides. The owners plan to eventually hire about 50 employees to work the Sacramento location, according to the release.

This story was originally published August 25, 2020 at 5:00 AM.