Inferno Pizza opens its doors in River Oaks

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Tuesday night, my 3-year-old son Winston demanded pizza as only a toddler could. It was almost his bedtime, so I put my foot down and said no. He pouted until he went to sleep.

On Wednesday, when I saw a friend's Facebook post that a new pizza place was opening, I knew I had to make up some mom points.

I rushed home from work and we hopped in the car and drove to Inferno Pizza, a new place on the ground floor of SkyHouse River Oaks, an apartment building on Westcreek off San Felipe.

The new pizza place is the brainchild of Pete Lin, and it follows the fast-casual concept of restaurants like Chipotle, Shake Shack and others. When you walk in, you go to the counter where a nice young person slides a personal-size pizza dough in front of you and offers you a choice of cheeses, sauces and toppings.

You can choose preset pizzas with names like Thai Fusion or the Texans. You can also build your own.

Winston may be just three, but he sure knows what he wants on a pizza. He eagerly picked out tomato sauce and mozzarella topped with pepperoni, ham, mushrooms and olives. I had no idea he ate olives.

The pizzas are normally $9.99, but for the restaurant's grand opening, they were half off. One pizza and apple juice came out to about $8.50!

Once you order your pizza, a worker slides it into the hot stone oven, and it's ready in about five minutes. Winston loved his thin crust pizza. It was sliced into six pieces, all hot and bubbly.

I don't eat cheese, so I am not a pizza expert, but Winston devoured half the pizza, and we gingerly put the rest in a little box to take home. Mom and son finished the night with a bit of gelato. He had cookies and cream, and I chose coffee-flavored.

Lin says he would like to expand the Inferno Pizza concept across Houston. He says he's already fielded calls from The Woodlands and Sugar Land, but he is focused on getting the first restaurant going.

For the health conscious, Inferno offers a gluten-free crust for $3 extra. In theory, you can order a meatless, cheese-less pizza on a gluten-free crust for a super healthy "pizza." Okay, maybe just get the one with cheese and all the meat.

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