By Natalie Lozano Trimble
Photography by Thanin Viriyaki
After eleven years and a few blocks north of Heim Barbecue’s first food truck location, Travis and Emma Heim are back in the Near Southside with pizza on South Main Street.
The name of their new restaurant is One Trick Pony, which Emma calls “a little tongue-in-cheek.”
Travis explains that the name represents their refusal to take themselves too seriously. But it also signifies the next chapter for the restaurateurs. One Trick Pony is a pizza tavern with a dark interior — sports-themed without becoming a sports bar.
When they signed the lease eighteen months ago in the spot vacated by Hot Box Biscuit Club, Travis says there weren’t many pizza places in the neighborhood. When they opened June 10, four other places sold pizza within a three-block radius.
But none of them offer Chicago Tavern-style crust, one of two options available at One Trick Pony, along with what Travis calls “East Coast style,” which is not quite New York and not quite New Haven.
Educating customers more familiar with deep dish on Chicago’s other style has been a challenge, per Emma, who describes it as an OG Southside style, cut into squares and great for sharing.
“We’ve had people from Chicago come in and say, ‘this is exactly how I remember it when I lived there,’” Emma says.
Their Starting Lineup of pizza options is an ode to a few Chicago and New York greats, like DiMaggio, Iron Mike, The Big Hurt and Reggie White. The Daryl Strawberry is not a dessert pizza; it’s a vodka sauce base with mozzarella, pepperoni and Calabrian chili oil, named after the New York Mets right fielder.
Dessert options are focused on sweets the Heims love: lemon bars handed down from Travis’s grandmother, a sundae served in a plastic baseball cap like their daughters enjoy at the ballpark, and a cookie skillet served à la mode.
Travis started making pizza about eight or nine years ago, he says, for their staff at the Heim Barbecue commissary kitchen. They had a pizza oven three times the size of their current oven, which they used to bake the potatoes for potato salad, and one day boredom became inspiration.
The elements Travis loved about perfecting barbecue he also found while making pizza and its dough.
“You don’t really have recipes. It’s more like a formula, and the formula is affected by a million different factors,” he says, citing one of his current adjustments of putting ice in his dough instead of tap water, which he found too warm.
“I can get real nerdy about it,” he says.
Emma prefers the design side of the business, but, most of all, they both simply enjoy creating spaces for people.
With the post-COVID convenience of standardized food delivery allowing everyone to eat at home, the Heims wanted to create a space for a date night that serves a good martini and that’s exactly what they’ve created.
A big difference from this restaurant opening when compared to the couple’s past experiences is their now expanded family.
Before, Emma says she would work 80-hour weeks and love it.
However, these days, things are different.
“I’m never going to leave my kids hanging,” she says, “But I love the restaurant too, so finding balance has been a bit of a struggle for me.”
Next up, they’re hoping to add lunch hours and a gluten-free crust to the menu. And after their success selling pizza by the slice at Trinity Pride this June, the couple is considering offering it for late-night customers, too.
For now, One Trick Pony is open Wednesday and Thursday from 5 to 9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 5 to 10 p.m.
Find the recipe for their meatballs here.