Taste the 518: Pizzeria Mari is Troy’s tiny temple to pizza 🍕

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Happy Tuesday, folks! Today, we’re taking you to Troy’s Pizzeria Mari, where Alex Chronopoulos is slinging our new favorite pizza in the Capital Region. The attention to detail in this joint is 🤌 from the minimalist design to the chef-driven ingredients. Come on in for a slice—or an entire pie if you’re lucky.

—Phat X. Chiem & Karley Sullivan

The story of Pizzeria Mari: Troy’s tiny temple to pizza 🍕 

Pizzeria Mari in Troy is a 425-square-foot shrine to pizza perfection. It’s the singular vision of a man obsessed with achieving just the right combination of flour, fermentation, and the finest ingredients to top a pie.

Alex Chronopoulos isn’t a classically trained chef. He didn’t come up in fine-dining kitchens or under the wing of a master pizzaiolo, although his dad did run a bagel shop for 30 years. He’s actually an IT professional from New Jersey who fell far, far down the pizza rabbit hole.

“As soon as I tried to make pizza, I realized it was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done,” Alex tells us during a recent visit.

Alex promised himself that he would open a pizza place by age 35, and that’s exactly what he’s done. For years, he worked on his craft, often posting the results on a little-seen Instagram account called CTRL+ALT+PIZZA. He also managed to save the $125,000 he would need to fund the build-out.

Today, Alex’s obsession plays out in every detail of Pizzeria Mari’s operation. The dough is a complex, constantly evolving blend of five different flours, including organic grains from Washington, Utah, and two small mills in upstate New York. There’s an ancient grain in there that imparts a lot of nuanced flavor to the dough.

Blending all of these different flours is “very unusual, even for artisan-style pizzerias,” Alex admits.

The fermentation incorporates two different starters (a sourdough and a polish) aged for up to 36 hours. And no recipe is ever good enough—his potato pie is labeled “v1,” suggesting future updates.

“I come from a tech background,” Alex says. “So it’s all about iteration. Every time I make the dough, I’m tweaking the ratios.”

That same thoughtfulness extends to the ingredients, mostly sourced from local farms and the Troy Farmers Market. The “Pep and Pepp” pie features cup-and-char pepperoni and fermented chilies from Edible Uprising Farm. The La Carbonara uses guanciale from Hurleyville, NY, and finished with sous vide egg yolk sauce and aged 24-month parm. Other pies showcase mushrooms from Collar City Mushrooms, hand-pulled stracciatella, and coffee-cured bacon from Troy’s Pretty Pig Provisions. There’s also a tomato pie—a sauceless, cheeseless, vegan marvel where the quality of the ingredients really shines.

Alex’s attention to detail also shows up in the minimalist, but eye-catching design of the logo, pizza boxes and storefront. By the way, the name Mari belongs to Alex’s beloved cat. The shop is takeout-only, deliberately so. 

“The whole idea was to keep it small. Just me, expressing a pure point of view,” Alex says while making us a Pep & Pepp, his most popular pie. “I’m not trying to scale. I just want to pay the rent, buy good food from the market, and make the best pizza I can.”

That single focus has made Pizzeria Mari a local phenomenon in just a few months. We can vouch for the pizza—it’s so, so good. In fact, right now, it’s our favorite pizza in the Capital Region, and we’re pizza snobs. (Read our profiles of Pizza by Plu and Blu Pizza at City Beer Hall.)

Since last October, the shop has only opened on Saturdays and Sundays, 11a-4p. This week, Alex added Fridays for the first time, 4-8p. Mishel, Alex’s partner, runs the front of the house (the adorable couple met at a music show at Basilica Hudson).

The deets: Pizzeria Mari, 625 River Street, Troy—next door from Touchy Coffee. 16-inch pies are $18-$28. Slices are $3-$4.75. Pro tip: You can order online, and also see which pies are available on the Slice Tracker. Slices usually sell out by 1p! And don’t sleep on the incredible TCHO miso chocolate chip cookies 🍪

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🌮 In case you missed it, the TU visits I Love Rosa in Waterford, saying “the restaurant operates with a sense of abundance that has become rare, delivering plates heavy with tradition and generous in scale.” All entrees are under $15. [Times Union]

🖼️ This Friday evening, Albany Center Gallery is celebrating the grand opening of its new location at 48 N. Pearl St. The event is centered around ACG’s 21st Annual Members’ Show, juried by Kayla Carlsen, exec director of the Albany Institute of History & Art. Here’s a sneak peek of the nearly 7,000 square feet space.

🍽️ The owners of Albany’s Hollow Bar + Kitchen have taken ownership of the popular Ravenswood Pub in Clifton Park, vowing to maintain the same menu, staff, and service.

This stunning, historic 1871 brownstone located in the heart of Troy rests in an expansive “secret garden,” bordered by sturdy 8-ft brick walls.

Stroll up the path to your most elegant life with sky high ceilings, a four season sunroom, and recently updated kitchens and baths. Stay grounded with gorgeous details including inlaid hardwood floors, intricate plaster moldings, marble mantels framing five fireplaces, a spacious butler's pantry, and updated plumbing and heating systems. The property also features a large three-bay carriage house with loft space above and mature perennial gardens.

Ideally located near RPI, Russell Sage College, and Troy area hospitals, this is truly one of the most distinctive properties Troy has to offer. Interestingly, it was placed on the market two years ago for $750,000—the current price is a substantial reduction!

The deets: 3 bd, 3 ba, 2720 sf. Asking: $599,900. Days on market: 2. See the full listing here.

Note: Our Top 5 Weekend roundup now publishes on Thursdays. Watch your inboxes!

TUESDAY

🎤 Season 4, Episode 3, at Song City features a stellar lineup of Hayden Beck, Amanda Case, Josh Clevenstine, and Daniel Kleederman.

WEDNESDAY

🎸 NPR called Neko Case, “essentially peerless”. See this singer songwriter in their zone at Troy Music Hall, with Des Demonas.

THURSDAY

📌Join the Vision Board Workshop with Mariah, founder of Troy’s Context Collective, for an intimate evening of intention-setting and reflection. We love Mariah—she’s super chill and lovely!

FRIDAY

🎨 Albany Center Gallery (ACG) opens its new doors at 48 N Pearl St. for their biggest reception of the year, the Annual Members Show. Just look for the ginormous blue mural!

🌺 Enjoy the glory of the architecture of The Cathedral of All Saints, combined with the talent of floral artists in the Capital Region and beyond, at Cathedral in Bloom.

🎭️ Singles Outreach in Colonie hosts Mabel & Geffrey's Music And Family Interest Affair. The duo sing their way through this family-friendly, mobster-themed lounge act.

🎸 Yacht Lobsters bring 70s & 80s soft rock favorites to Ryan’s Wake.

🪡 Sliding scale acupuncture at The Center for Independent Media. Reservations available on Fridays throughout the month of January.

SATURDAY

❄️ Catch a bit of magic at Albany County’s Annual Winter Festival at L featuring snowshoeing, ice fishing, sled dogs, and more.

💀 The Nightmare Expo at Proctors celebrates all things haunting and bizarre.

🌕️ Context Collective presents “What Blooms in Moonlight,” featuring live painting and live music, followed by an ecstatic dance!

🖼️ Family Saturday at the Tang focuses on the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. this week.

🎙️The Egg is open again and it’s hosting Rock Voices Albany – Greatest Hits, LIVE!, featuring hit songs from the Beach Boys, Ozzy Osbourne, Supertramp, Sly & the Family Stone, Cyndi Lauper, James Taylor, and more.

🍺 The Beer & Chip Pairing at Wolf Hollow Brewing Co. is a classic combination.

🎸 Lark Hall welcomes the 22-year-old guitar virtuoso Taz.

🎨 Drink n’ Draw at MoJo’s Cafe & Gallery features a live model and chill vibes.

🎭️ Girls! Girls! Girls! is an original stage play by Lila Rallatos at No Fun. Hilarity ensues when four college friends reunite and get blackout drunk.

SUNDAY

💃 Learn some sizzling moves at Burlesque Dance Night with TachyCardia at No Fun.

🎟️ This collab dinner with First + Adams & Familiar Creature looks delish—we love sunchokes!

ART ON VIEW

• Don’t miss the delightful Nina Katchadourian: Fake Plants and Other Curiosities at the Hyde Museum.

• Family Forms at the Tang Teaching Museum presents art and archival photographs from the Tang collection that highlight themes of kinship and care and offer an expansive vision of family.

• Noel W Anderson: Black Excellence and Romare Bearden & Ralph Ellison: From the Archive | UAlbany Art Museum | worth the visit

Our music listings are now published separately on The 518 website. Click here.

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