Parlor Pizza Project started in Alex Plattner’s Minneapolis living room—or parlor—last summer as a simple gathering of friends for a homemade pizza dinner. As he gained more experience as a baker and pizza maker, the project grew. By the time Plattner started selling his pizzas last winter at the Minneapolis bakery where he worked, he sold out immediately.
Photograph courtesy of Alex Plattner
Today, the project is a pop-up pizza shop at Oakley Wines. Every Sunday from 2–8 p.m., Plattner, who moved to Mt. Adams this year, sets up shop in the kitchen. He serves up a two-pizza menu and makes the pies in-house until either the end of the night or until he runs out of ingredients, whichever comes first.
“My whole childhood was seeking out pizza,” Plattner says. “It’s been a huge focus of mine for a long time.”
About three years ago, Plattner left the education field because he realized his passion could be his career. He started to look for jobs at the bakeries and pizzerias he respected. The idea, he says, was “Let me get a taste for it and get some experience and make sure this is really what I love, and it is.”
Photograph courtesy of Alex Plattner
Plattner focuses on his pies’ crust, the foundation of the pizza. His dough incorporates a variety of textures: He chars it, just a little, to add flavor and crunch, but it’s airy, too. He uses bread flour and thinks of his dough almost like a great local bread: hearty and substantial, not too heavy, and fully baked.
Plattner tops his pies with locally sourced ingredients. He picks up produce from ETC Produce & Provisions and meat from LK at Findlay Market and Smoking Goose in Indianapolis.
His Sunday menus include one meat pizza and a vegetarian feature. After about a month into his Parlor Pizza Projects at Oakley, the crowd favorite pie has featured pork sausage and pickled serrano peppers.
“I’m changing them really frequently so I can test out a lot of different topping combinations,” he says. “I hope to be able to give people more topping choices. At this scale, when it’s just me making all the pizzas, I’m keeping it simple.”
Parlor Pizza Project, Sundays 2-8 p.m. at Oakley Wines, 4011 Allison St., Oakley
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