No offense to pizza purists who’ve studied the science of dough in Naples, but Desmon Coleman, who started making his pizzas three months ago, is turning out some seriously good pies.
On weekends, Coleman’s Hustle Town Pizza pops up at Grapevine’s Hop and Sting Brewing Co., where he usually offers an option featuring smoked meats from Vaqueros Bar-B-Q, a food truck permanently stationed at the brewery that’s been on the radar of Texas Monthly’s barbecue and taco editors.
The best of two food worlds come together with Hustle Town’s Big Texan: a sourdough Neopolitan-style pizza topped with shreds of moist brisket and rib meat from Vaqueros, along with little dollops of mac ‘n’ cheese, a scattering of pickled red onions, and a drizzle of Mike’s Hot Honey.
As delicious as the collaborations with Vaqueros are, Coleman’s pizzas are tasty enough to stand on their own. A white pie with mozzarella, ricotta, kale, and scallions pleased a white pie-hater in my party who regularly lambasts kale. The Bougie Grandpa is a top-seller with Italian sausage and shiitake mushrooms, and the Mona Lisa — with confit garlic, shallots and fresh thyme sprigs — reveals Coleman’s culinary background.
“If you had asked me a year ago [about making pizza], I would’ve laughed,” he says.
Coleman returned from kitchens in Los Angeles to his hometown of Arlington last year when the pandemic began. Packed in a cooler on the car ride home was a 50-year-old sourdough starter from San Francisco that he procured from a friend of a friend. It’s the same starter he used to experiment with during the pandemic “for fun,” and it’s now producing the Hustle Town pizza crusts that have a distinctive sourdough taste, Coleman says.
Coleman started cooking when he was 7 years old, and he’s always known that food and hospitality is the industry he wants to work in for life. He attended culinary school in Costa Mesa, Calif., before going on to work in restaurants throughout the golden state.
When he returned home to Texas, Coleman attempted a culinary debut with a barbecue business, but profits were low for a labor-intensive food product in a metroplex teeming with competition. The pizza market, on the other hand, was easier to get a start in.
“Aside from Cane Rosso and Zoli’s, there’s not a lot of good pizza, which is why I wanted to move into it,” Coleman says, “because there’s no competition, really, and people can eat pizza two or three times a week.”
After purchasing two specialized portable pizza ovens, an Ooni and a Gozney Roccbox, both of which have stones that reach 950 degrees, Coleman got started in the best place for an entrepreneur: his garage.
He and his father now carry the ovens and pitch a tent on weekend evenings at Hop and Sting, a pleasant place to sit under a tree and have some barbecue tacos, a beer, and a pizza. Maybe even a barbecue pizza.
“I think I’ve found my calling,” Coleman says. “I just wanted to do something I’ve never done before. It’s about evolving.”
Coleman’s ultimate goal for Hustle Town Pizza is a brick-and-mortar, but in the meantime, he’s saving for a portable wood-burning oven and looking for more bars and breweries to host Hustle Town.
Follow Hustle Town online at instagram.com/hustletownpizza. Hop and Sting Brewing Co. is located at 906 Jean Street, Grapevine.
