The Room
The Backspace is a twenty-six-seat Neapolitan pizzeria tucked behind Parkside on East Sixth Street — Shawn Cirkiel running it as a backroom-of-Parkside concept that has aged into one of the most-disciplined pizza programmes in Texas. The wood-fired oven is imported from Naples; the kitchen runs a 72-hour cold-fermented dough programme; the Margherita is built to AVPN-standard specification.
The room is small and intentional. A bar facing the open kitchen, four banquettes along the western wall, and a small back booth that is the seat regulars request. The booking window is unusually tight for the format — three weeks for a weekend two-top — because the room is among the smallest in downtown.
The Food
Six pies, all twelve-inch, all baked in ninety seconds at 900 degrees. The Margherita is the test pie. The Pizza Bianca with prosciutto and arugula is the regular's second order. The antipasti programme runs a small bench of charcuterie, a seasonal salad and a daily pasta. The dough alone is the reason the room has its national following.
Wine list is small-producer Italian — Tuscan, Piedmontese, Sicilian — with an honest by-the-glass programme. Cocktail bench is a working Negroni, an Aperol spritz, a half-dozen amari. Service is the Cirkiel-group standard, warm and informed.
Best Occasion Fit
First Date: The bar at The Backspace is one of downtown's most-reliable first-date seats. The pizza shares well, the wine programme is the conversation, and the room's intimacy reads as romantic without becoming claustrophobic.
Birthday: Birthdays at The Backspace are casual, pizza-led, intimate affairs the small room handles with the rare grace of a kitchen that has not pretended to be more than it is in fifteen years. The back booth is the seat to request.
Solo Dining: The bar facing the wood oven is one of downtown's better solo-dining seats. The oven is the conversation, the bartender will run the wine programme, and the room runs at a tempo the diner of one can settle the meal at the right closing.