Sauced on Paseo
Originally called Sauced in an arts district originally called Spanish Village, Sauced on Paseo and the kitschy neighborhood where it lives have never been better.
Just as G.A. Nichols’ 1929 development took its time recovering from the Great Depression, so, too, did Sauced on Paseo take its time returning from a March 2021 fire. “The walls were still standing after the fire,” Humankind Hospitality’s founder and president Shaun Fiaccone recalls. “But this place was burned to the ground.”
When Sauced reopened last winter, it was only after Fiaccone installed a deck oven and tasked his executive chef with developing a house-made dough. Chef Quinn Carroll, who spends most of his time at Humankind’s Frida Southwest across the street, did just that while Fiaccone re-imagined the space.
“I wanted it to be family-friendly, and I knew I wanted it to still have a strong bar presence,” Fiaccone says. “The patio was a slam dunk, but I wanted to make sure it was unique. I wanted to make it emotive. I wasn’t worried about the food (Chef Quinn) was going to make, so I focused more on a place that was experiential.”
Besides family-friendly dining inside and out, Sauced has an adults-only bar one door over, where folks 21 and over can belly up to the bar and order pizzas, salads and apps without ever entering the dining room. In July, Fiaccone added a vintage all-ages arcade called Five More Minutes featuring more than two dozen free-play video games, air hockey, a claw machine, and Nintendo consoles fitted to period-appropriate televisions.
But none of those experiences matter much if the pizza doesn’t deliver. Sauced does so with brawny 20-inch pies, family-style salads, garlic knots, fried mozzarella, pizza rolls, wings, and the fried button mushrooms Oklahomans expect thanks to a little pizza joint from Stillwater: Hideaway Pizza.
The original pizza place in the space on the eastern edge of the district was called Sauced, opened by Ed Baldwin and Mandy Biggers— Baldwin ran the place and Biggers funded it. When the couple split up in 2010, the popular spot for pizza and poetry readings was in peril.
In stepped Paseo Grill owners Lesley Rawlinson and Joe Jungmann with silent support from Fiaccone. They deep-cleaned the property and soon Sauced was Sauced on Paseo. Humankind assumed stewardship in 2021, two months before the fire that shut it down for two years.
Once reopened, Sauced was peddling New York-style pies on a 20-inch crust, gluten-free version, or personal-pan. Cheese and pepperoni are available every day by the slice, plus three specialty slices a day.
Among signature pies, the Kimmereno (pepperoni, jalapeno, goat cheese, and red onion plus red sauce, mozzarella, roasted tomato, and Pecorino Romano), Bee Sting (burrata, cupping pepperoni, basil pesto, and hot honey glaze with red sauce and mozzarella), and Nichols Hills (caramelized onions, spinach, and mushrooms with garlic glaze, truffle oil drizzle and mozzarella) do not disappoint.
But the biggest patch of real estate on the Sauced menu is devoted to dealer’s choice. Fiaccone believes when it comes to pizza, people bring their favorite pies in the door.
“What I’ve learned about pizza is it’s a very emotive food,” Fiaccone says. “Everybody has their place that they go, everybody has the toppings they want, everybody has the crust that they want, everybody has the sauce that they dip in. Do you want chili oil? Do you want ranch? There’s just so many different things to consider, and It’s hard to move people once they’ve established an emotional connection.”
Chef Quinn, executive chef for Humankind Hospitality, grew up “mildly obsessed with pizza,” and relished the opportunity to develop the dough.
“I have a pretty intensive pizza background,” Carroll says. “I’m not going to say I’m completely responsible, but I was hired to help (84 Hospitality’s) Empire (Slice House) back in 2014. I also was at Hall’s Pizza Kitchen.”
Fiaccone handed Carroll—who calls attending the Pizza Expo in Las Vegas in March “one of the most fascinating, most beautiful things ever”—the reins to a new deck oven and cut him loose.
A scratch kitchen emerged.
“All our sauces, all our dipping sauces, dressings, dough [are] made from scratch daily,” Carroll said. “We’re going to hand-stretch, hand-toss the dough and top it with really good cheese and sauce.”
For dessert, Carroll kept the Rice Krispy brick tradition alive from the original concept, and used his deck ovens to produce oatmeal crème hand-pies. Sauced’s patience has powerfully paid off.
> Sauced on Paseo, 2912 Paseo, Oklahoma City, saucedpaseo.com, (405) 521-9800
