Award-winning Raleigh chef opens pizza restaurant this week

"We wanted to do something different from Poole's but also have a space that has some ties and connections to a place that's been so special to us," Christensen said Wednesday.

Poole'side Pies is twice the size of Poole's, meaning more space to make the restaurant's signature item - pizza.

"I think pizza is one of those great examples of a food that everyone feels a different connection with," Christensen said. "I don't know if I've ever met anyone who says, 'I don't like pizza.'"

Poole'side will start off by serving seven different Neapolitan-inspired pizzas. Menu options include the traditional margherita (homemade mozzarella, Bianco DiNapoli tomato sauce, basil and parmesan) and an heirloom tomato pizza (topped with Duke's mayonnaise, horseradish and buttermilk cheddar cheese.

Poole'side was four years in the making, with Christensen and Goalen doing a lot of research by visiting pizza places across the globe. A big part of developing Poole'side's pies was getting the dough just right. Christensen uses flour milled at Lindley Mills in Graham.

The pizzas are cooked in a Marra Forni Italian brick oven, which heats them up to a scorching 900 degrees.

"You get very intense heat on the deck, and that's what creates that really beautiful leoparding on the bottom of the pie," she said. "The (oven's) dome shape helps to create a really nice convecting heat that melts all the ingredients on top in balance with the speed the dough is cooking."

Pizza isn't the only thing on the menu. Poole'side is also serving a pork meatball appetizer and four salads, including the Pickle Juice Caesar, which is topped with parmesan cracklings.

The restaurant's decor has a retro feel (just like its sister restaurant Poole's) but also some clever nods to its watery name sake.

"I think it's really lively, bright, light, I want it to be the kind of space where people walk in and feel both relaxed but lifted at the same time," Christensen said of the restaurant's pool-themed decor, which includes an underwater image behind the bar.