Boise brothers went to N.Y. for pizza school. Their new restaurant serves ‘perfection.’

Biting into a hot slice of Neapolitan pizza pulled from his brother’s backyard brick oven, Carlos Duncan had a realization.

“I thought, ‘This pizza is better than anything I could buy in any restaurant in Boise,’ ” he remembers. “It’s like, ‘Man, if I could have that every day ... .’ ”

That’s where the idea for 3 Wood Pizza & Pub, 10497 W. Lake Hazel Road, began.

But not where it ended.

Before Carlos, 49, and Richard, 51, opened their neighborhood hangout in late December, the duo traveled to Staten Island last summer. They spent a week working in New York’s first brick-oven pizzeria, Carlos Duncan says. They learned Old World-style pizza-making at — well, he prefers not to say.

Too many valuable secrets, he explains by phone. Their training came through the same channel where they purchased 3 Wood’s “amazing, unique brick oven from Italy,” Duncan says.

“You learn to make the dough, you learn to make the sauces,” he says. “Many of the recipes. And some of the management aspects of it.”

Sold in 12-inch — and, eventually, 16-inch — sizes, 3 Wood pies are all about the crust. And sauce. “The crust is a huge deal,” Duncan says. Dough is proofed for three days, as the restaurant touts on its Facebook page. The sauce is hand-milled from vine-ripened plum tomatoes.

It’s not New York-style pizza that begs you to fold it. “It’s not like a Manhattan-style thin crust where you go and you buy your slice on the street,” Duncan says. “It’s more like a classic Brooklyn style. It has a nice, chewy bite with a crunch on the finish.

“It’s really light. That’s where we’re getting compliments — that and the sauce. But it’s starting with just an incredible bread base and building from there.”

Duncan recommends the Pepperoni Lovers ($11.99), “so people can get a taste of that cup and char.” The pieces of sizzling, curling pepperoni develop “nice bacon crisps around the edges in the oven.”

OK, that or the Classic Margherita ($9.99), “which shows off everything.”

“The margherita is perfect,” he says. “It shows off our style. We don’t load it up with shredded cheese. We actually do a sliced cheese and let it marry with the sauce on the pizza in the oven. Less is more. Simplicity. It’s just simple perfection.”

3 Wood also sells sandwiches and salads. A meatball and marinara sandwich, or a classic Italian Godfather, each cost around $8.99 for a 6-incher. Add a cup of soup for $2.50. The sandwiches are a “generous, hefty” lunch, Duncan adds. “There’s plenty of protein on there to leave you satisfied.”

Oh, and in case you were wondering? Yes, there is gluten-free pizza on the menu, which comes in a 10-inch size. And, yes, there are 14 beers on tap — soon to be 18. “By the end of COVID, we hope to have all 24 running,” Duncan says. And, yes, takeout pizza is available.

But at 3,000 square feet, 3 Wood has an occupancy load of 148 people. Of course, that’s when the coronavirus pandemic is over. The restaurant also has a patio — launching, most likely, in April, when the Duncans hope to hold an official grand opening celebration.

The Idaho brothers grew up in Twin Falls before winding up in Boise. The day after he turned 19, Carlos started tending bar at Cafe Ole in Twin Falls, he says, before embarking on a life in the restaurant industry. Richard wound up with a career at Micron.

Now the brothers are together each day at 3 Wood, named after the fact they both use a 3-wood off the tee in golf.

“Chefs? Head janitors? You name it. We are it. We’re doing all of it,” Carlos Duncan says. That includes remodeling the southwest Boise space, formerly a Garbanzo’s Pizza.

The brothers picked up their hammers in November 2019. And they recruited relatives.

“I mean, Mom was in there, my nieces were in here painting and doing work. It was a labor of love from the family,” Duncan says.

“And it’s beautiful.”

This story was originally published January 15, 2021 at 5:00 AM.