Exclusive: Lenoir and Salt & Time owners opening Dovetail Pizza in South Austin
Mining childhood memories and tapping into their individual culinary expertise, Lenoir co-owner Todd Duplechan and Salt & Time co-owner Ben Runkle have formed a team to reimagine the family-friendly pizzerias of their youth.
The duo has partnered with Swedish Hill baker-partner Alex Manley, G’Raj Mahal founder Sidney Roberts and Natalie Davis and Joe Ritchie (partners in the nascent Present Tense Hospitality Group that Runkle started during the pandemic) to create Dovetail Pizza.
The new restaurant is slated to open in mid-November at 1816 South First St. in the space formerly occupied by Mumtaz Market, also a Roberts’ venture. The building across the street from Lenoir has previously housed Alcomar and El Chile, among others.
This will be Duplechan and Runkle’s first time working professionally with pizza, though the idea is not new.
“I’ve been thinking about this kind of pizza place for a long time, and so has been Ben, apparently,” Duplechan said.
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The duo brought on Manley, long recognized as one of the city’s top pastry chefs, as their culinary partner who could help create the foundation of their pizza. The baker hit the mark immediately.
“I was astounded,” Duplechan said of Manley’s first efforts. “The pizza was so good, and it was a cheese pizza. You know what you know.”
Manley created an oblong shaped pizza, 12 inches by 18 inches, inspired in part by the pizza Duplechan loved from Campisi’s in Dallas as a child. Having the Salt & Time co-founder on board will allow some “vertical integration” when it comes to sourcing, with the pizzas featuring cured meats from the East Austin salumeria.
“It’s about the feeling and the experiences we had and trying to reimagine and synthesize that,” Runkle said of the restaurant that will also serve salads, pastas and some creative small plates that will allow for a little chef-y muscle-flexing.
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The initial menu includes grilled Padrón peppers and snap peas, corn-fried calamari, shaved zucchini salad and rigatoni alla vodka, with a pizza selection that includes pepperoni and Parmesan, roasted mushrooms with taleggio and herbs, crab with roasted corn and more.
The group’s motto for Dovetail, a name inspired by the woodworking term for pieces coming together seamlessly to make a whole, is: “Better than you remember.”
“Even though it’s brand new, we want it to hit all the same notes of the place you loved as a kid. Our palates have just adjusted and changed,” Duplechan said.
Dovetail will be open from 4 p.m. to midnight Wednesday-Sunday for dine-in service only, with plans to expand hours in the months ahead.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Lenoir and Salt & Time owners to open Dovetail Pizza in South Austin
