A Stylist to the Stars Turns His Attention to Square Pizza

Photo by Chelsea Kyle

Boston salon owner Mitch DeRosa, a man who has adjusted the locks of everyone from Gisele Bundchen to Jennifer Aniston, is getting serious about pizza. The creator of the wildly successful Living Proof hair care line has teamed up with David Puerta, the same lab chief who’s helped tame tresses across the country, for expertise on creating the perfect pizza dough at his Newbury Street restaurant, Scissors & Pie.

“There are so many different variables that go into making a great pizza,” DeRosa says. “Just like David Puerta and I did with Living Proof, we and our chef Marco Storini created this matrix to narrow down the best crust, playing with the best temperatures, artisanal ingredients, water, all the variables that go into making a fabulous dough and crust.”

Although most people assume the name has something to do with DeRosa’s career path as a celebrity stylist, it was just happy circumstance that Roman pizza—that of the crispy, rectangular variety sold by weight—is cut with shears rather than a wheel. Pizza al taglio (“by the cut” in Italian) is sliced to your size preference, meaning you can try just one large square of a dozen rotating varieties, which at Scissors & Pie ranges from classic Margherita to artichoke with homemade garlic sauce.

“It’s like pizza tapas—it’s a great way to share different flavors, and a really wonderful way to eat with friends, or share a smorgasbord of flavors with family.” It was this communal dining experience, something that DeRosa shared with his wife and four teenage children when trekking through Italy and Paris, that inspired his new labor of love. But the process of recreating an authentic Roman pizza was over a year in the making.

The mozzarella is made locally, but almost everything else, including the unique mix of semolina and hard wheat flours, the tomato sauce, and charcuterie, are all imported from Italy. Even Storini hails from Rome, having moved to Boston to help DeRosa helm the ovens at Scissors & Pie.

Unlike most other pizza purveyors who skimp on the leavening process, DeRosa’s signature 72-hour rise time for the crust means there’s no feeling of “pizza bloat.” The result is a bubbly, crunchy, chewy crust that serves as a durable canvas for more robust toppings like sautéed shrimp (Bufala Gameri e Pomodorini), zucchini and speck ham (Zucchini Speck e Scamorza), and smoked salmon (Salmon Affumicato e Gamberi).

For DeRosa, what’s in front of the house is just as important as the kitchen. The Newbury Street space is as much a feast for the eyes as it is for the stomach with earthy bamboo tones, warm lighting, and tables on runners designed by one of Boston’s biggest names in architecture, Jonathan Levi. DeRosa says the real “piece de resistance” though, is the illuminated glass display case. “This pizza is so special, it’s like jewelry. It’s really like the feeling of walking up to a jewel case,” he says.

Photo by Chelsea Kyle

225 Newbury St, Boston; 857-350-4088 or scissorsandpie.com.