The Room
Tom Douglas opened Serious Pie on Virginia Street in 2006 — a wood-fired pizza dining room dedicated to the proposition that Seattle needed serious Neapolitan-leaning pizza at full restaurant scale. The 700-degree oven runs from open to close. The dough is a 48-hour cold-fermented programme.
The Seattle Times review held Serious Pie among the year's best new restaurants in 2007. The Tom Douglas group has expanded the format to multiple Seattle locations, but the original Belltown room remains the canonical reference.
The Food
Eight rotating pies, all twelve-inch, all baked in 90 seconds at 700 degrees. The Margherita is the test pie. The clam-and-pancetta, the wood-roasted chanterelle in season, and the seasonal-rotating chef's pies handle the menu's wider draws. The antipasti programme is the way in.
Wine programme is small but considered. Beer programme runs Pacific Northwest craft. Service is counter-and-runner.
Best Occasion Fit
First Date: The bar at Serious Pie is one of Belltown's most-reliable casual first-date seats. The pizza shares well, the wine programme is interesting enough to extend the conversation.
Solo Dining: The bar at Serious Pie is a solid Seattle solo-dining seat for the casual register. A pizza, a glass of wine, a small antipasti — the diner of one settles the meal in thirty minutes.
Team Dinner: Serious Pie handles team lunches better than most Belltown counters. The communal tables hold ten, the family-style ordering scales, the bill is honest.