For its first location outside San Francisco, Flour + Water knew it had to be Oakland

When the team from Flour + Water group, creators of popular San Francisco pasta and pizza concepts, began planning their first restaurant outside the company’s hometown, there was only one candidate — Oakland.

271 24th Street, Oakland, CA 94612; fwpizzashop.com

Hours: Sunday to Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays, 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.

“To me, it wasn’t, ‘Where do we go outside of San Francisco?’ It’s, ‘When do we go to Oakland?’” said co-founder Thomas McNaughton said. Flour + Water, the original restaurant, opened in 2009 in San Francisco and expanded to become the hospitality group by the same name, which also has another restaurant, Penny Roma, plus a pizzeria, a pizza shop, and its own pasta brand.

And, the “when” is today. Flour + Water Pizza Shop officially opens Jan. 22 in The Lark building, luxury apartments north of downtown Oakland.

Flour + Water Pizza has two other outposts: one sit-down pizzeria in North Beach, which also houses their central kitchen where the dough is made, and a pizza shop in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood. Co-chefs and co-founders McNaughton and Ryan Pollnow say that expanding to Oakland was a longtime goal, noting that many of their employees live there.

Thomas McNaughton, left, and Ryan Pollnow are the co-chefs and co-founders of Flour + Water. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for East Bay Nosh

Known for their Neapolitan-meets-New York-style thin-crust pizza using slow-fermented dough that’s crispy and chewy at the same time after being baked in electric ovens. Pies range from $17 for a cheese pie, to $25 for the “meatza.” There are red pies and white pies, such as a pesto with mozzarella, ricotta, garlic, parmigiano, and lemon oil. For those who don’t want a whole pie, large slices range from $8-$10. All pies can be made gluten-free for an additional $2 using their housemade GF crust, made into a Sicilian square pizza that’s cut into four thick slices. Pizzas can also be made vegan, using their in-house vegan “cheese.”

Flour + Water Pizza Shop offers a “big slice” a single, square-shaped pizza slice. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for East Bay Nosh

The co-chefs added that Oakland has become a food destination, with creative takes on many types of cuisines and operating under diverse food business models. Just across the street, for example, is Tarts de Feybesse, a two-time James Beard-nominated patisserie that opened a little over a year ago, known for French-inspired trompe-l’oeil – pastries that look like real fruit.

“There are a large number of great restaurant concepts, and to be a part of that was especially a goal for us,” Pollnow said.

Like their other shop, the Oakland shop has a few items that pay homage to local flavors. The Mission Bay location has Gilroy garlic fries, for example, inspired by the stadium fries. The Oakland shop serves chicken wings seasoned with an Oaktown Spice Co. spice blend. The wings are dipped in an aquafaba, gluten-free batter made of chickpeas and rice flour, and fried twice. The highlight is the dipping sauce, inspired by The Cheese Board Collective in Berkeley and other East Bay pizza shops’ “green sauce.” Theirs is made with cilantro, garlic, chiles, and limes, and makes a really fine dipping sauce for all of their dishes, from the wings to the meatballs. They also serve a Kölsch German-style beer, a collaboration with Temescal Brewing.

The menu at Flour + Water Pizza Shop includes chicken wings (top) made with a spice blend from Oaktown Spice Co. and a beets and citrus salad (bottom). Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for East Bay Nosh

As for the pizza dough, it’s produced in the central kitchen in North Beach, using a blend of organic grains from Central Milling, based in Petaluma, and cold-fermented for several days.

While the pizzas are the main attraction, there are plenty of side dishes to balance things out, such as a beets and citrus salad, roasted Brussel sprouts, the aforementioned wings, white beans and celery, house-made mozzarella sticks, and meatballs. Their soft serve ($8) uses cream from Double8 Dairy in Petaluma (which also supplies their fresh mozzarella). Toppings, such as a brown butter crunch cereal or olive oil and sea salt, can be swirled into the soft serve. The menu also includes a boozy Lambrusco slushie cream float ($15).

Top: Flour + Water’s pizza dough, made in a central kitchen in North Beach, uses flour from Petaluma’s Central Milling. The pizza shop menu includes a pesto pizza. Bottom: Chef de cuisine Elliott Armstrong tops off a cacio e pepe pizza with fresh pepper. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for East Bay Nosh

To cater to the daytime crowd, the shop has a lunch special that includes a half salad and a large slice for $16, available during the weekdays.

The restaurant has an all-electric kitchen and both indoor and outdoor seating areas. For the space, the team worked with local designers and focused on sustainability, with one percent of proceeds going toward Zero Foodprint, a nonprofit that supports regenerative farming through grants to farmers and ranchers. Flour + Water Pizza Shop at the Lark also offers delivery to locations within a 20-minute drive of the restaurant.

“We’re excited to be in the East Bay finally,” Pollnow said.

Flour + Water Pizza Shop is located on the ground floor of The Lark in Uptown Oakland. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for East Bay Nosh