Pizza Today - March 2017 - 118

staff. Of its 130 employees, she
says that roughly 25 percent
have been with the business
for what would be considered
a very long time, with a few
dozen exceeding 10 years.
Staff has been key to
Paradiso's growth. "We've been
able to put good people into
each location as we expanded,"
Gresser says.
Each Paradiso has a cohesive
look of brick, reclaimed wood,
a painted cloudy blue sky on
the ceiling and creative beer
storage displays. A woodburning oven takes center stage
in an open kitchen with makeline seating. Each Paradiso uses
the same food menu, while
beer menus vary slightly.
But that doesn't mean each
location is the same. "We don't
change who we are for our
locations, but the restaurants do
change according to where they
are located," Gresser explains.
"The customer is different and
the staff who work there is
different. So the restaurants get
their own personalities without
us having to try."
Local media have referred
to Gresser as a "pizza pioneer"

and the "matriarch of pizza"
in D.C. It's easy to see why.
Gresser, who graduated summa
cum laude from Madeleine
Kamman's Classical and
Modern French Cooking
School and has cooked
professionally in restaurants
across the country, created
a focused and finite menu
at Paradiso. The one item
missing from Paradiso's pizza
menu for more than 20 years:
pepperoni. The bold statement
to make America's favorite

1 1 8 / P I Z Z AT O D AY. C O M / M A R C H 2 0 1 7

pizza topping only available in
the create-your-own offering
speaks to traditional Italian
pizza.
You also will not see soup
or pasta on its menu. "When
we were young, people would
ask for soup so I made soup
for a little while," Gresser says.
"What I found is that people
didn't really come to us for
soup, they came for pizza."
Adding a pepperoni pizza,
The Macellaio, a few years
ago was one of the few menu
changes since Paradiso's
inception, Gresser says. The
Macellaio features tomato
sauce, pepperoni, pork sausage,
red onion and mozzarella ($14
for a nine-inch).
The pizza menu consists
of 13 pizzas with the option
of nine-inch or 12-inch. The
Paradiso pizza (just cheese
and tomato sauce - $12 for
a nine-inch) is most popular.
People often add toppings to
the Paradiso. The Margherita
($13 for a nine-inch) and the
Macellaio ($14 for a nine-inch)
are also top sellers, as well as
the Bosco with tomato sauce,
spinach, mozzarella, mushroom
and red onion ($13 for a nineinch). Many of the pizzas offer
the traditional Paradiso tomato
sauce or the beer-infused
Birreria Paradiso tomato sauce.
For Gresser and Paradiso's
fans, it's the dough that really
sets it apart. "The thing that is
different about our crust is that
it's much breadier than a lot
of crusts of today," she says. "I
describe it as a country bread."
Counter to Paradiso's concise
food menu, its beer menu is
extensive and meticulously
executed with beers served
http://www.PIZZATODAY.COM
Pizza Today - March 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pizza Today - March 2017
