Zalat Pizza is an unassuming stoner pizza joint in Dallas. But don't puff, puff, pass on this local brand with a loyal following.
They're up until 4 a.m. on the weekends, making and delivering pizzas while all the other pizza joints have gone to bed. By the end of 2019, Zalat will operate six restaurants North Texas. More are expected to open in 2020.
The newest ones, expected to open Nov. 2 in Denton and in December in Fort Worth, promise that same greasy, cheesy late-night pizza that earned Zalat its rough-around-the-edges reputation at the original restaurant on Fitzhugh Avenue in Dallas since 2015.
Owner Khanh Nguyen says he opened a late-night pizza joint simply because he could relate to people who were awake at 3 a.m., and hungry. "That demographic of late-night eaters: That was me," he says. He claims to have always been a night owl, even when he practiced corporate law for a decade in Dallas.
After hearing Nguyen obsess over pizza crust, it's odd to think that Nguyen ever worked in other industries besides restaurants. But his story's a winding one that starts in Vietnam, as the eighth child out of nine. His family became refugees in the United States in 1975 after the Fall of Saigon. When the kids grew up, nearly all of them followed his parents' wishes and became lawyers, doctors or engineers.
Nguyen did that, too. After a few job shuffles in the late 2000s, he took 9 months off to learn to cook.
Many Dallasites know Nguyen's first restaurant, DaLat Vietnamese Restaurant and Bar, which he opened in 2012. But it's his second restaurant, Zalat, that took off faster than DaLat ever did. Today, the 4-year-old Zalat has two restaurants in Dallas, two in Plano and the Denton and Fort Worth restaurants opening in late 2019.
Nguyen acts like a carefree guy — like a lawyer finally free of stacks of court documents, maybe. But his stoner pizza joint is serious business.
Like this: First Nguyen casually mentions that he'd "never made a pizza" when he signed a lease to open a pizza joint next-door to DaLat in Dallas. But he fell into it hard, spending 6 months working on his pizza crust recipe, which he says must have a "perfect balance between crispy and chewy."
There's a crisis here, between nonchalance and obsession, that's the backbone of the Zalat brand.
For instance, Zalat's employees work until the wee hours of the morning. Nguyen could hire a revolving door of part-timers, but instead he's trying to create an environment where working until 4 a.m. is rewarded. And normalized. Most of Zalat's 100 employees work full-time, which means they receive health benefits, 401(k) options, and the opportunity to get equity in the company if they earn it. He balances that seriousness with a more lighthearted company perk: Any employee for at least a year can get a Zalat logo tattooed on his or her body — and the company will pay for it.
The general manager at the flagship restaurant on Fitzhugh in Dallas started as an Uber driver who was hired as a night cashier, promoted to assistant GM, and now serves as the boss. Saturday nights are by far the company's busiest, and Danielle Steward gets home around 5 a.m. on Sundays.
Bring it on, she says.
"I get to be the GM of the busiest pizza company in Dallas," she says. "It's fun. It's exciting."
Her favorite pie is the Pho Shizzle, a pizza with chicken, red peppers, caramelized onions, cilantro, basil, hoisin and Sriracha swirl. It's inspired by the flavors in a bowl of pho next-door at DaLat — but on a pizza. Steward likes it with a side of Srirancha, which is a Sriracha-ranch blend that many loyal customers love.
The most popular pizza at all the restaurants is the simple pepperoni. The all-beef pepperoni on top "trap" the grease on the pizza, Nguyen says. Customers can see that grease, which Nguyen says is very much on purpose: "I think it is crucial to have grease as part of the mouthfeel of a bite of pizza." Have you ever heard anybody talk about "mouthfeel" in relation to pizza grease?
Zalat's staff makes pizzas and salads only, which means they can follow Nguyen's lead and obsess over hand-tossed dough, housemade sauce and ingredients. To balance that, pizzas are served in bare-bones restaurants without any frill. Without those distractions, Nguyen hopes that customers can taste their fixation over that one main item — pizza.
"I do not want to spend any time making a product that's not pizza," Nguyen says.
The coming-soon Denton shop is located near the University of North Texas and across the street from some of the city's beloved watering holes like Fry Street Tavern and Lucky Lou's. When the Denton shop opens on Nov. 2, it'll keep specific hours: It opens at 4:20 p.m. and closes at 4:20 a.m.
At least they know their audience.
Zalat restaurants opening in 2019 are at 1200 W. Hickory St., Denton and 843 Foch St., Fort Worth. For the other locations in Dallas and Plano, go to zalatpizza.com.
