dough.cheese.sauce

Downtown Reno  ·  New York–Style Pizza  ·  $  · www.doughcheesesauce.com

In the window at dough.cheese.sauce, you’ll find a rotating lineup of eight to ten pies, changing daily. You point. They cut. You eat. That’s the entire beautiful transaction at Marvin Kinney’s new New York slice shop in downtown Reno.

Kinney—the same guy behind R Town Pizza, one of the essential tables in the city—has finally brought proper East Coast-style slices to 600 South Center Street. The menu balances the classics and the creative in equal measure. There’s a Plain (red sauce, pecorino, oregano), a stripped-down tomato pie that’s nothing more than sauce, garlic, and pecorino (and absolutely correct for it), and a White Pie brightened with shaved lemon and whipped ricotta. Then come the more playful pies: the Brighton with vodka sauce and whipped ricotta, the Gabagool with capicola, Castelvetrano olives, and vegan hot honey, and the loaded Midtown stacked with pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, onions, peppers, and olives.

I ordered the Classic: red sauce, two kinds of pepperoni (including the cup-and-char that blooms and blisters beautifully in the oven), and oregano. It was excellent. The crust folds cleanly, the cheese pulls right, and the pepperoni edges curl into those perfect little grease pools. I folded it in half and ate it standing at the counter—the only right way to do this.

Mason jar shakers of red pepper flakes and fresh-grated parm sit on the table. A sticker on the counter shows the shop’s logo: a pizza-oven arch, the outline of Nevada, the name. It feels a little bit downtown New York and entirely Reno. Whole pies are available too, if you can’t bring yourself to choose just one slice.

Don’t miss: The Classic, folded. And if the tomato pie is in the window when you go, get a slice of that too—it’s a masterclass in restraint that pays off in every bite.