{"id":28956,"date":"2022-02-22T10:43:55","date_gmt":"2022-02-22T18:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=30000025169"},"modified":"2023-03-20T00:01:53","modified_gmt":"2023-03-20T07:01:53","slug":"speak-cheezy-sourdough-pizza-urban-pie-long-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/food\/speak-cheezy-sourdough-pizza-urban-pie-long-beach","title":{"rendered":"From van to storefront, sourdough pizzeria to open in Belmont Heights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pizza has taken chef Jason Winters to a lot of places. From celebrity mansions to drive-in movie theaters, to children\u2019s birthday parties\u2014such is the nature of his pizza business, Speak Cheezy<\/a> (formerly Urban Pie), a popular mobile pizza catering company known for its wood-fired, naturally leavened sourdough pies and, more recently, its unconventional set-up: Their pizzas are baked in a van.<\/p>\n

\u201cPizza goes everywhere,\u201d Winters, 43, said. \u201cSpeak Cheezy has a lot of stories. Urban Pie too.\u201d<\/p>\n

But now, the roaming pizza van is embarking on a new chapter with the opening of its first brick-and-mortar, a move a decade in the making for the venerated chef and a bright new edition to the Belmont Heights area.<\/p>\n

Speak Cheezy moved into the closed former Scratch Bakery on Fourth Street and Termino Avenue, a spot Winters said he\u2019d had his eye on for years taking his kids to and from the elementary school across the street.<\/p>\n

In August last year Winters spontaneously stopped by to inquire if the owner would like to sell and discovered that Scratch\u2019s owner was retiring. Three months later, Winters penned his name on the lease.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was definitely a Kismet moment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Jason Winters, owner of Speak Cheezy pizza, with his family Micah, 8, Zoey, 4 and his wife Merly Winters at the front counter of the new brick and mortar In Long Beach Monday, Feb. 7, 2022. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Winters is in the final stages of preparation for his new space and anticipates Speak Cheezy will see its first round of customers April 15. Once open guests can expect the same quality-focused, naturally leavened and freshly stretched sourdough pies that have made his business a regional hit, but with expanded options for catering and take-home consumption.<\/p>\n

For eight years Speak Cheezy\/Urban Pie operated out of a costly 3,400-square-foot industrial catering facility in Commerce to prepare his four-day fermented sourdough starter. Now, with his new space, he can centralize production, allowing Speak Cheezy to continue operating its vans for catering and parties and to churn-out fresh pies for locals.<\/p>\n

His not-so-secret weapon is his new PizzaMaster electric deck oven, able to reach over 900 degrees and mimics the baking effects of a wood fire oven. Meaning Speak Cheezy\u2019s pizzas will still be marked with the much-admired spotted, leopard-like char on the crust\u2014a sign of a well-cooked dough\u2014without the hassle or carbon footprint of a wood-burning oven.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of the Tesla of pizza ovens,\u201d Winters said. \u201cIt\u2019s very, very efficient and we\u2019re not polluting the environment, there\u2019s not fire and smoke and ashes everywhere. It\u2019s just very clean.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A post shared by Speak Cheezy (@speak_cheezy)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n