There’s more than just good pizza being served up at Slim & Husky’s Pizza Beeria. There are dreams, compassion, and opportunity happening too. Writer Leslie Long tells us about her visit to their Nashville location. 

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Yet another reason to visit Nashville: Slim & Husky’s unforgettable pizza

First I loved the place. Then I loved the pizza. And that was all before I found out the uplifting story behind Nashville’s Slim & Husky’s Pizza Beeria.

Taken here for lunch by knowledgeable Nashville locals, I honestly didn’t expect much from Tennessee pizza, especially being from New York where good pizza is an art form and an obsession. But that preconceived notion disappeared the moment I bit into my deliciously different oblong pie in this stylish pizzeria that’s unlike any other I’ve experienced.

Staff behind the counter of the sleek restaurant. Photo by Leslie Long.

I immediately liked the clean design: shiny black and white subway tiles, concrete floors, light wood tables and great looking graphics. Even before noon, the place was buzzing. Many were already digging into their pies, music was playing, people were smiling and it was clear that Slim & Husky’s was bringing a lot of pleasure to a lot of people.

Our first stop was the beer taps where an array of local beers like Hop Hazy IPA and Kings of Leon Lager were being served. When I asked the guy pouring mine about the place, he smiled and said how much he liked working there. “The owners,” he said, “are really, really cool.”

The owners of Slim & Husky’s, from left, Co-founders E.J. Reed, Derrick Moore, and Clint Gray. Photo courtesy Slim & Husky’s.

Slim & Husky’s Pizza: Three college friends made their dream come true

Turns out the owners are Nashville locals Clint Gray, Derrick Moore, and E.J. Reed — longtime friends who played football together at Tennessee State University.

After graduation, they started The Green Truck Moving & Storage Company which quickly grew from three employees to 45. They’d proven they could succeed together, but decided they wanted to empower their under-served North Nashville community, while doing something that would make people happy. Pizza, they decided, would be their vehicle.

They sold their moving business, using the profits to get started on their quest to serve artisan pizza in a hip-hop inspired atmosphere. First, they rented a warehouse in their neighborhood where they started trying out pizza recipes. Not being trained chefs, this was uncharted territory, yet they had a vision.

Their friends were more than happy to help evaluate their efforts and they gave away a lot of pies as they perfected their unusual recipes for thin, oval-shaped pizzas with extra flavorful toppings. When they opened the first Slim & Husky’s, they expected to sell a few hundred pies a day. It didn’t take long before they were selling 1000.

As for the name, one of the partners is slim and two are big guys whose mothers had to shop for their childhood clothes in the husky department. This was always a joke between them, so they decided to call their place Slim & Husky’s.

Photo courtesy Slim & Husky’s.

The ins and outs of a Slim & Husky’s pizza 

Diners have eight artisan pizzas to choose from. Or you can construct your own from a long list of sauces, cheeses, proteins, and vegetables. There are vegan options, too.

I tend to like Margherita pizzas, but often find them to be a little bland. The “Got 5 On It” pie was listed as having “Classic Red Sauce, S & H House Cheese Blend and Fresh Mozzarella” which sounded in the ballpark, so that’s what I decided on. While waiting, I looked for salt because I always add salt to pizza, but they didn’t have any. Instead, they had a station with pumps of sauces (which struck me as very strange!), but more about that later.

Oblong pizza cut into equal squares, with sauces to accompany it. Photo by Leslie Long.

I ordered my pie and then stood in front of a line of friendly ladies who were putting the pies together. Like the guy pouring beers, these enthusiastic women seemed to be having a good time and they instantly made me feel at home. My pizza was constructed and then put through a conveyor belt kind of thing to cook. Before long, I was called up to claim my bubbling, charred beauty of a thin crust pie, smelling of rich tomatoes and melted cheese, cut into eight inviting rectangles.

One bite and I was hooked. Without being overly spicy, it packed a punch and didn’t need salt or any other seasoning. My friends had brought back a bunch of those sauces which they call “drizzles” — Pineapple Chipotle BBQ, Balsamic Molasses, Stoneground Peach Mustard and more. They swore these would enhance the pizza and weird as it seemed, I gave the Peach Mustard a try. While that seemed like the last thing that would go with a red pie, it was a tasty addition. My friends had pies with meat and pies with chicken and all were crisp, layered with flavor, and impossible to resist. We sat there mixing and matching our various pies with different drizzles and each one was a new taste experience.

At Slim & Husky’s, pizza is the catalyst for so many good things

The three entrepreneurs who started the business set out to invigorate less touched areas of their community by offering residents employment opportunities and accessible dining experiences, including locally brewed craft beer and fresh, innovative pizza. Their locations were carefully chosen to be able to offer jobs to people who could only walk to work or get there by public transportation.

When the owners aren’t perfecting their product, they’re hosting community events and speaking at local schools (pizzas in hand) and other organizations that can benefit from their experience. They recently started a reading program at an elementary school near one of their locations, offering weekly incentives rewarded with pizza and cinnamon rolls (yes, they sell those, too!). In founder Derrick Moore’s words, “We just want to be a part of this street as much as possible and continue to develop and have a footprint in this community.”

Cinnamon Rolls are on the menu too. Photo courtesy Slim & Husky’s.

With four current locations, Slim & Husky’s is thoughtfully expanding. There are two in Nashville and another in nearby Antioch, TN. They have one in Atlanta and are about to open another in that city. And their next stop is Memphis. If you’re lucky, there may be a Slim & Husky’s coming to your area soon. But in the meantime, you can always visit Nashville, where it happily all began.

Learn more about Slim & Husky’s on their website. More about visiting Nashville at visitmusiccity.com.

Look into plans to visit Nashville with TripAdvisor, an affiliate partner.

Take a look at this video from USA Today, used with permission of the restaurant.

— Story by Leslie Long. Photos, except where noted, by Leslie Long.

Hungry for more? Find out about more of the foodie (and music scene) in Nashville, in this article. Here’s what it’s like in Memphis, near by.

The exterior of Slim & Husky’s Pizza in Nashville. Photo by Leslie Long.

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