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After five years operating Dante’s Woodfire Pizza out of a truck in Kendall Whittier, owner Beau Ballard has announced that Dante’s is making a big move. After a farewell service at their Heirloom Rustic Ales-adjacent location this Tuesday and Wednesday from 3-6pm, they’ll be joining Tulsa legends like Mercury Lounge, Tina’s, the Brut Hotel, and Dalesandro’s in the SoBo District.
Ballard had been looking into expanding Dante's into a brick-and-mortar operation gradually, piece by piece. Then one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities arrived: a chance to set up shop in the old American Solera building next to The Shrine and turbocharge the dream.
With regular foot traffic from concert crowds, office complexes, neighborhood residents, and the school around the corner, adding a pizza joint to the district’s mix of bars, music venues, and upscale-but-comfy eateries seems like a solid bet. Ballard’s vision for the new spot takes all of that into account. He plans to offer lunch, counter service, dinner, and even a walk-up window where you can get a late-night post-show slice, with a simple drink list including beer and wine. A tin-roofed patio and maybe even a mini kid zone might take shape, too, as plans develop over the next several months. Meanwhile, the beloved Dante's truck will be posted up outside.
If you’re nervous that Dante’s might go bougie in its new location, never fear. The gritty spirit you love will be coming along. “If I have the right tools, man, we can do a lot of stuff,” Ballard said. “And it doesn't have to be overly pretentious or any of the things that really turn me off in food culture. I just like inclusivity. Very, very cozy, very friendly. That would be my ideal thing. It's gonna have, like, I don't want to say Italian vibes, but replace the homestyle Italian with a homestyle Oklahoman kind of vibe. I have some really sick photos of my grandpa and his brother when they started their grocery store in West Tulsa—old men in aprons behind the counter, working the deli or whatever. That’s my idea of what the aesthetic is going to be. Shabby, but not, like, too shabby. Just rough enough around the edges.”
Ballard—who has invented pies featuring everything from peaches to sauerkraut—wants to expand his pizza-making potential with an actual kitchen and ovens that can handle more kinds of ingredients. “A lot of raw ingredients get kind of sautéed or kissed by the flame, so to speak,” he said, because health codes prevent him from cooking on anything in the truck other than the woodfire oven. “I would love to do, like, a mushroom confit and a nice cheese pizza. But we can't confit mushrooms in a thousand-degree oven.” He’s eyeing a Detroit-style pizza offering, too. All pizzas will continue being made to order, on hand-mixed dough.
SoBo is primed for Dante’s to land. “[The business owners there] have been doing it for years. They’ve been in the game. [The people in] Maple Ridge are already like, ‘We're so excited to have you here,’” Ballard said.
“I'm just really excited for the opportunity,” he continued. “I've done a lot with a little. I've been very blessed to be in that Heirloom space—thank you Jake and Melissa and Jess. But when you hear, like, ‘Man, I barely found you back here. Y'all doing all right? Y'all good?’—you're like, damn, bro. How much of this business would be better if we were on a front street or, like, very visible? We're gonna find out. And yeah, seeing kids wanting to cook and giving them opportunities to be around food and just being a part of the community, the neighborhood—I'm stoked, man.”
We’ll miss Dante’s in Kendall Whittier, but it’s sweet to see a win like this for a hardworking, community-minded, punk-spirited DIY food operation in Tulsa. Look for the Dante’s truck to transition over to 18th and Boston very soon, and let’s all try to keep it together as we wait for the brick-and-mortar to open next spring.
