Gourmet Dallas Pizza Favorite and Its Special Romo Dough Moves Into River Oaks — Pie Tap Is Here

A 96-Hour Rise

BY Laurann Claridge // 06.06.25

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A casual gourmet pizza restaurant, Pie Tap’s claim to fame is its signature, proprietary pizza dough, which is risen without the aid of commercial yeast, additives, or preservatives.

Pie Tap's light-filled space features a workshop-inspired aesthetic, complete with an exhibition kitchen, industrial lighting, and mosaic-tiled walls, providing guests with a front-row seat to the pizzaiolo's action.

In addition to pizzas, on the scratch-made Pie Tap menu you’ll find an selection of snacks, sandwiches, salads, pastas, rotisserie chicken, mains, and desserts.

Situated at 3748 Westheimer Rd, Suite 100, (NE corner of Westheimer and Willowick) on the ground floor of the Novel Residences, Pie Tap is a stone’s throw from Highland Village. (Photo by Courtesy of Pie Tap)

The tap in the Pie Tap name alludes to the more than 30 wines and beers on tap. The bar program features a curated wine list, and handcrafted cocktails and mocktails like fresh, fruit-infused tinctures like blackberry smash and Frosé with gin, Aperol, rosé, strawberries, rosemary, and lemon.

Pie Tap also features rotisserie chicken cooked fresh daily and incorporated into salads, pastas, and sandwiches where the bread is baked and made to order from its own dough ball. (Photo by Courtesy of Pie Tap)

A casual gourmet pizza restaurant, Pie Tap’s claim to fame is its signature, proprietary pizza dough, which is risen without the aid of commercial yeast, additives, or preservatives.

Pie Tap's light-filled space features a workshop-inspired aesthetic, complete with an exhibition kitchen, industrial lighting, and mosaic-tiled walls, providing guests with a front-row seat to the pizzaiolo's action.

Situated at 3748 Westheimer Rd, Suite 100, (NE corner of Westheimer and Willowick) on the ground floor of the Novel Residences, Pie Tap is a stone’s throw from Highland Village. (Photo by Courtesy of Pie Tap)

The tap in the Pie Tap name alludes to the more than 30 wines and beers on tap. The bar program features a curated wine list, and handcrafted cocktails and mocktails like fresh, fruit-infused tinctures like blackberry smash and Frosé with gin, Aperol, rosé, strawberries, rosemary, and lemon.

Pie Tap also features rotisserie chicken cooked fresh daily and incorporated into salads, pastas, and sandwiches where the bread is baked and made to order from its own dough ball. (Photo by Courtesy of Pie Tap)

If you consider pizza an essential food group, you’ll want to check out Pie Tap’s first Houston restaurant in River Oaks. The popular Dallas-area gourmet pizza chain was created by restaurant industry veteran Rich Hicks, founder of Reach Hospitality, which includes the Dallas-Fort Worth-area restaurants Evelyn, The Mexican, TacoLingo Tex-Mex and Black Tap. Hicks teamed up with renowned Sicilian chef Giovanni Mauro (Monzu, Old School Pizzeria) on coming up with Pie Tap.

Marketing itself as a casual gourmet pizza spot, Pie Tap’s claim to fame is its signature, proprietary pizza dough, which is risen without the aid of commercial yeast, additives, or preservatives. Instead, the dough is leavened with a natural yeast starter (one the duo has nicknamed Romo) that’s mixed with a special flour that combines wheat flower and wheat germ along with olive oil and salt before the dough is set aside for multiple rests and rises over a 96-hour time span. All to develop a clean, authentically Italian dough that’s easier to digest.

“To achieve its unique flavor profile for the dough, we developed a strain starter with apricots from a local farm and added a madre starter from the Island of Ischia, which is more than 300 years old,” Mauro says. “This time-honored technique creates an uncompromising crust that is both crunchy and satisfyingly doughy. . .

“The pizza, made with only flour, water, salt and extra virgin olive oil, with no added sugar, is baked to perfection in twin Morello Forni rotary ovens, imported directly from Italy, which ensure an evenly crisp yet light finish.”

A selection of dishes at Pie Tap — In addition to pizzas, on the scratch-made Pie Tap menu you’ll find an selection of snacks, sandwiches, salads, pastas, rotisserie chicken, mains, and desserts.

Situated at 3748 Westheimer Road, Suite 100 (NE corner of Westheimer and Willowick) on the ground floor of the Novel Residences, Pie Tap is a stone’s throw from the Highland Village shopping center. Its light-filled restaurant space features a workshop-inspired aesthetic, complete with an exhibition kitchen, industrial lighting and mosaic-tiled walls, providing diners with a front-row seat to the pizzaiolo’s action.

Interior of Houston Pie Tap — Pie Tap’s light-filled space features a workshop-inspired aesthetic, complete with an exhibition kitchen, industrial lighting, and mosaic-tiled walls, providing guests with a front-row seat to the pizzaiolo’s action.

Some of the alluring pizza varietals include the Prosciutto, topped with medjool dates, date sauce, pistachios, arugula, house-made ricotta, parmesan and balsamic. The Salami pizza is scattered with calabrese salami, house fennel sausage, biellese pepperoni, and bacon, drizzled with Calabrian chili oil. Both pies are $20 each.

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To inspire you to eat all the crusts, Pie Tap created an array of pizza dipping sauces, which include a goat cheese fondue, house ricotta ranch, organic tomato and hot honey Each sauce is $4.

If you’re going gluten-free, there are options for gluten-friendly pizzas and pastas (all made in-house) too.

In addition to pizzas, on the scratch-made menu, you’ll find an selection of snacks, sandwiches, salads, pastas, mains and desserts. Look for the chicken meatballs in organic tomato sauce ($15), the calamari fritti ($15) and the garlic rosemary bread puffs with provolone asiago whip ($13). Shareable fresh salads, and pastas also beckon. Including the ricotta gnocchi with mushroom, spinach, roasted garlic, pine nuts and goat cheese cream sauce ($19); spicy rigatoni vodka with house fennel sausage, bacon, basil and grana Padano ($20); and pappardelle Bolognese with Wagyu beef and parmesan ($21).

Moving onto the mains, you’ll find the Wagyu smashburger ($16), hot honey truffle salmon ($24) and chicken parm ($21). By the way, did we mention the rotisserie chicken? It’s roasted daily and incorporated into salads, pastas and sandwiches where the bread is baked and made to order from its own dough ball.

Taps at Pie Tap Houston — The tap in the Pie Tap name alludes to the more than 30 wines and beers on tap. The bar program features a curated wine list, and handcrafted cocktails and mocktails like fresh, fruit-infused tinctures like blackberry smash and Frosé with gin, Aperol, rosé, strawberries, rosemary, and lemon.

The tap in the Pie Tap name alludes to the more than 30 wines and beers on tap. The bar program features a curated wine list, and handcrafted cocktails and mocktails. These include fresh, fruit-infused tinctures such as the blackberry smash; a Frosé with gin, Aperol, rosé, strawberries, rosemary and lemon; a pineapple habañero Margarita and Tuscan sangria made with Italian wine, vodka, gin, lemon and rosemary.

Pie Tap is located at 3748 Westheimer Road, Suite 100. It is open from 11 am to 10 pm Mondays through Thursdays, 11 am to 11 pm Fridays and Saturdays and 10 am to 10 pm on Sundays.