Pizzaiolo

Wood-fired pizza and pasta on Telegraph, all organic and all local, on a menu the kitchen rewrites constantly. Charlie Hallowell still co-owns it, which is a fact worth knowing before you book.

Why go

The kitchen states its own rule plainly: Pizzaiolo is a wood-fired pizza and pasta joint located in Oakland, California. All organic, all local with a menu that changes all of the time.1 That constraint is the whole operating model, and it is why a pie here is a different pie in October. The room has been a Temescal fixture long enough to have seeded kitchens across the East Bay.

The ownership is the other half. The Oaklandside reported in February 2024 that Hallowell, who stepped away from multiple businesses in 2017 after admitting to harassment and other inappropriate behavior toward employees, remains co-owner of Pizzaiolo and had bought a building in the Laurel District for a second, similar restaurant.2 He sold his stake in Penrose and Boot & Shoe Service, stepped back from daily operations until 2019, brought Donna Insalaco in as business partner and hired a majority-female staff at Pizzaiolo. Those are the reported facts, and where people in Oakland land on them is their own call.

Order this / avoid

Order: whatever is on the pizza list tonight. The menu turns over constantly by design.
Avoid: arriving set on one dish you read about. It will not be there.

What locals & experts say

The Oaklandside (12 February 2024): Hallowell, quoted directly: I'm not perfect, but I believe so much in people's capacity to change. And I've really changed.2
Andrew Vennari, owner of Sequoia Diner, in the same piece: Hallowell's history of misconduct is "still open-ended." "I stand with the people who were negatively impacted by him."
On the cooking: no critic's line is quoted here.

Good to know

Timing: dinner.
Booking: recommended.
Getting there: Telegraph Avenue in Temescal, at 51st.

Verdict

could-visit — A wood-fired room that rewrites its menu constantly on an all-organic, all-local rule, which is the kitchen's own stated discipline and the reason its alumni show up all over the East Bay. What holds the rung down is evidence, not doubt: no critic's line, no dish and no price were readable on this pass, so the page rests on the venue's own copy plus a news report about who owns it.