Square Pie Guys is known as one of the pioneers that first brought Detroit-style pizza to the San Francisco Bay Area. Two new limited-run menu items on the brand’s menu will be a nod to another burgeoning Bay Area trend: Indian-style pizza.
As first reported by Eater SF, Square Pie Guys will debut two “tikka-ish” pizzas on April 25. The menu items were designed as a collaboration between recipe developer Hetal Vasavada and Square Pie Guys director of marketing and innovation, Priya Kane. The duo said the new pies tap into their heritage as Indian-Americans while also paying tribute to Bay Area institutions like Zante’s Pizza and Indian Cuisine.
The two pizzas: Paneer Tikka-ish and Chicken Tikka-ish. The “ish,” according to Eater, was added to the names of the menu items to describe the latitude the group felt it had to explore flavors outside of traditional Indian cuisine.
“I think it’s tandoori meets tikka meets malai because there’s elements of all those different things,” Vasavada says. “You have warm cozy spices that come through in the marinade, but you also get the tart tomato. I don’t know what to call it. It’s kind of tikka, but tikka-ish.”
Eater notes that Square Pie Guys will be bringing Indian-fusion pizza to a new format by putting it on the Detroit-style base that the brand has become known for. The R&D that the team went through to get there appears to have included a trip to Pijja Palace, a Los Angeles Indian fusion restaurant that serves pizza.
According to Eater, the recipe the duo settled on leverages several recipes from Kane’s family. The cilantro-mint chutney that will top the pie is derived from Kane’s mother’s recipe, while the tandoor curry spice was inspired by a recipe Kane’s uncle uses at his restaurant. Both pies have a tikka-style sauce as a base and are paired with masala pickled onions, the cilantro-mint chutney drizzle and green onions. Vasavada helped Kane develop how all of the elements would work together to create an exceptional eating experience—and something that screams “Bay Area” all at once.
“Is this authentic Bay Area cuisine? I think so,” Kane told Eater. “I think tikka masala is Bay Area, I think Indian pizza is Bay Area, and I think in Square Pie Guys’s pursuit to represent the Bay on Detroit-style pizza — this does exactly that.”
