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The Richmond and Henrico communities are welcoming the area’s first pizza by the slice food truck, Zorch Pizza, which began serving with an appearance at Strangeways Brewing in Henrico Dec. 8.
Owner Rob Zorch started making pizza in his home oven about three and a half years ago.
At first, he was using store-bought dough and sauce and cooking his pizzas in a sheet pan. He quickly moved to making his own dough and sauce, shredding his cheese and cooking his pizzas on a baking steel. He decided on solely preparing New York style pizzas because the style is his favorite.
“I became obsessed with researching exactly how pizzerias in New York City made their pizza,” Zorch said. “I watched a ton of Youtube videos and read pizza making forums to figure out the best ingredients to use, dough stretching techniques and what oven temperature to cook at to make an authentic New York style pizza.” He also started an Instagram account, @zorchpizza, to post about the new homemade pizzas he was creating each week.
Zorch decided to go into the food truck business because he always thought Richmond needed a New York Style pizza by the slice place, and thought a food truck serving up just that would be the perfect introduction of New York style pizza to the area. He worked on another truck to get some experience and to make sure that starting his own truck would be the right fit for him.
Zorch Pizza will offer classic pizza flavors, like cheese and pepperoni, as well as specialty pizzas, cheesy bread and soda.
“My favorite on the menu is the So Spice!,” Zorch said. “I love the sweet and spicy combination from the hot honey and the jalapeños. All of the specials with AR’s Hot Southern Honey, a local Richmond honey, are fantastic, and I’m always going to have the hot honey out on the shelf for customers to add to any slice they want.”
Zorch came up with every menu item except for the Meatball Club, which is a slice of pizza served with meatballs, pancetta, roasted red peppers, basil, whole milk mozzarella, parmesan and red sauce.
His old University of Richmond classmate, Bryan Defino, takes credit for the flavor. Zorch was a chemistry major at the university and graduated in 2007.
The food truck will also be available for catering, and will offer appetizers like toasted ravioli, meatballs, caprese skewers, stuffed mushrooms and garlic knots.
Zorch will be driving the truck, making the pizzas and doing the food prep in his commercial kitchen. He will usually have one or two people working with him in the truck at a time. It will rotate between his wife and a few of his friends.
For now, Zorch Pizza will be running part-time, so it will be open for business on the weekends. It plans to eventually become a full-time food truck and to be at varying events both in Richmond and Henrico. Its schedule can be found on its website, www.zorchpizza.com.
