by Greg Morago

Houston is mad for pizza. Pie shops are opening faster than you can say pepperoni. But pieman Anthony Calleo of Pi Pizza isn't sweating the competition. He knows he has great pizza. So do his many fans who knew him from more than four years of slinging slices out of his popular pizza truck. His biggest vote of confidence has come from the partners of Cherry Pie Hospitality, the restaurant group that has invested in Calleo's first brick and mortar store that's set to open soon – by early next week it should be firing dough.

Thin, Brooklyn-style pizza is the star of Pi Pizza, opening at 181 Heights in the former Funky Chicken restaurant, one of the Bradley Ogden Hospitality restaurants that failed after the James Beard Award-winning chef and his team miscalculated the Houston restaurant scene and the city's dining preferences. When Lee Ellis, founder of Cherry Pie Hospitality (State Fare, Petite Sweets, Lee's Fried Chicken & Donuts and Lee's Creamery), took over the Ogden leases he knew he wanted to install a pizza concept in one of sites.

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Source: http://www.chron.com/