After just five months, Rise Up Pizza, a Detroit-style operation located in Horse & Jockey Pub in Lexington, Kentucky, will have to cool its oven for a while, thanks to a menu dispute with the landlord.
“My lease at the horse and jockey has ended unexpectedly and I’ll be closing my doors forever on Sunday,” Matty Evans, a popular local pizzaiolo and owner of Rise Up Pizza, posted on Facebook on March 18. “This is not a joke.”
Accompanying the post was a photo of a pizza called Roberta’s Beesting 61 Revisited, which Evans described as “the best pizza ever made by anyone, and I’m extremely proud of it.” Clearly inspired by the Bee Sting, a trademark pie served at the famous Roberta’s in New York, Evans’ version features a blend of mozzarella, provolone and cheddar cheeses, tomato sauce, hot soppressata, dollops of whipped burrata and a honey-habañero glaze.
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As the Lexington Herald Leader reports, the issue with Evans’ landlord turned out to be a simple matter of menu selection at Rise Up Pizza, which had only been open for five months.
Jimmy McSweeny, owner of Horse & Jockey Pub, told the Herald Leader that Rise Up Pizza’s menu wasn’t broad enough. He said he’d asked Evans to add some non-pizza items “because if three people come through the door and one doesn’t want pizza, you lose the whole tab.” McSweeny added that he planned to develop a new menu with burgers, wings, hot dogs and other fare for Horse & Jockey.
Evans started out with a food truck and built up a loyal following. Last November, he relocated Rise Up Pizza to Horse & Jockey from its prior location at Greyline Station, where he’d offered “Nearly-apolitan” pies, and switched to the Detroit style to capitalize on its surging popularity nationwide.
At that time, Evans told the Herald Leader, “I have the best dough in town,” describing his crust as “crispy on the outside, light and airy on the inside.” Apparently, his customers agreed, regularly voting for Evans’ pies as the best in the city during Lexington Pizza Week.
To drum up support for this year’s Lexington Pizza Week, Evans posted a drily funny Instagram video on February 26. “Unfortunately, I don’t have any very beautiful, slightly androgynous, hard-fem women to hop on the video with me, so I brought my sourdough starter, Audrey 2,” he said, with a deadpan expression. “She’s in disguise so no one will recognize her.”
The jar containing Audrey 2 was wrapped in blue paper illustrated with black glasses and a goatee.
In the Herald Leader story, Evans said he’s looking for a new spot to park his oven. “I am likely to relaunch the food truck at least partially this year, with hopes of finding a better and more permanent brick-and-mortar spot towards the end of the season—hopefully a spot that isn’t dependent on other businesses being run properly.”
