Nighthawk Pizza, now open in Westpost, serves 16-inch, thin-crust pies alongside low-ABV brews from Aslin Beer Co. (Photograph by Hawkeye Johnson)
Cease by Westpost in Pentagon Metropolis and also you now have the choice of popping right into a TJ Maxx … or a pizza-and-beer joint that appears an terrible lot like Saved by the Bell’s The Max.
Nighthawk Pizza—a brand new collaboration from chef Johnny Spero, restaurateur Scott Parker and Aslin Beer Co.—opened March 24 in Westpost, the just lately renamed clutch of eating places and retailers previously referred to as Pentagon Row. The ten,000-square-foot beer corridor and pizzeria, stationed beside Taiwanese gua bao depot Bun’d Up and reverse Irish pub Mattie & Eddie’s, sports activities latticework accents and a great deal of electrical blue squiggles on the partitions. And any similarities to the enduring hangout spot of ’90s TV lore are intentional.
“I grew up within the ’90s,” says Aslin co-founder Andrew Kelley.
Now 35, the Northern Virginia native says he spent a great deal of time at Pizza Hut in his youth, and aimed to mix that vibe with the now-retro Memphis design style exemplified within the aesthetics of The Max.
About three years in the past, Kelley bought the concept to open a brewpub-meets-pizza parlor within the D.C. space after visiting Pizza Port Brewing in San Diego, California.
“We actually preferred the idea of bringing households collectively, bringing folks collectively by means of pizza and good beer,” he says.
Now teamed up with Spero (the celebrated chef at Georgetown’s Reverie and a onetime competitor on Netflix’s The Remaining Desk) and Parker, Aslin is taking part in a distinguished function at Nighthawk. Ten beers are on faucet, with crowler choices and as many as 10 extra rotating faucets on the best way. The entire brews are meant for pairing with pizza and burgers, and have an ABV that’s 5% or decrease.
“You don’t need like a 16% stout as a result of that’s going to fill you up,” Kelley says. As an alternative, the opening-day beer listing features a kellerbier, a pistachio brown ale and one in every of Kelley’s private suggestions, the margarita bitter IPA.
The OKC onion burger is smothered with caramelized onions, pickled jalapeños, American cheese and smoked mayo. (Photograph by Hawkeye Johnson)
Eight wines are additionally accessible by the glass or bottle, in addition to a number of cocktails, cider and non-alcoholic, house-made draft root beer.
Clients can be happy to take any of the aforementioned drinks on a stroll round Westpost’s central plaza, the place patrons are permitted to stroll the premises with an alcoholic beverage in hand. An out of doors bar at Nighthawk can also be within the works.
The pizza—a 16-inch skinny crust pie, sliced grid-wise—is available in seven varieties, together with potato (confit potato, parsley, stracciatella, mozzarella and bravas sauce) and littleneck clam (pecorino, fontina, roasted garlic, oregano, basil, white sauce). The choices additionally embrace a Wagyu beef sizzling canine and a burger (a menu merchandise for which Spero is known). The OKC onion burger is topped with American cheese, caramelized onion, smoked mayo and pickled jalapeños.
Decide up a bumper sticker, T-shirt or branded beer glass in your approach out. (Photograph by Eliza Tebo)
Although there are oodles of places to pick up a pizza in Arlington, Parker—the dogged entrepreneur behind Poppyseed Rye, Bearded Goat Barber, Bronson Bierhall and several other local concepts—claims nothing’s fairly like Nighthawk.
“That is the perfect pizza and beer that you could get in an Arlington bar, no query,” he says. “Johnny’s pizza is superb, and what these guys have completed with beer is, fairly frankly, I feel untouchable.”
Close to the restaurant’s double doorways, guests will discover a number of cabinets stocked with merch that’s tempting to the touch. With Nighthawk-branded bumper stickers, T-shirts and flat-billed baseball caps, there may be loads of aptitude to maintain the ’90s vibes going.
Nighthawk Pizza is situated at 1201 S. Joyce St., Arlington. The restaurant is open Sunday-Thursday from 3-10 p.m. and Friday-Saturday from 3 p.m.-1 a.m. It would add lunch service within the coming months.
