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"Planned to open next year in Mount Pleasant at 3110 Mount Pleasant Street NW, Rick’s Craft Pizza will be a casual, small underground pizza parlor from Rick Weiner, a self-taught cook leaving a 30-year mortgage banking career to pursue restaurant work. After taste-testing pies in a Beltsville test kitchen and at real estate events that earned “rave reviews,” he intends to feature a centrally located oven producing “Neapolitan-ish” 12-inch pizzas with “top of the line” ingredients; one pie in development uses extra virgin olive oil as a base, and toppings under consideration include seasonal fruits like sliced peaches or pears, prosciutto, sweet fennel sausage, pork shoulder, and cured chorizo, with experiments incorporating Vermont maple syrup, honey, and aged provolone and gouda. He plans a relaxed vibe where customers can get a glass, sit, and have pizza brought to them (minimizing wait service), will stock lots of craft beer available in four-packs from local suppliers such as Maryland’s Brookeville Beer Farm, is engaging D.C. microgreens grower Little Wild Things for seasonal salad mixes, will start by serving dinner only while he keeps his day job, and is working with broker Patrick Slagle as he considers this Mount Pleasant site (and alternate sites in Cleveland Park or near the Convention Center around 1,000–1,200 sq ft); he’s also had mentorship from José Andrés and David Trevelino during the process." - Tierney Plumb