‘Get ready for San Francisco prices, Boise’: Chain to open 2nd Idaho pizzeria soon
It's been amusing to peruse online reviews of the first Idaho location of Slice House by Tony Gemignani, an expanding pizza chain founded by a 13-time world champion pizza chef.
Some Idahoans love the restaurant, which opened last October in Meridian. Others haven’t been quite as impressed. (Hence, the solid-but-unspectacular rating of 4.2 out of 5 stars on Google — and 3.9 on Yelp.)
Plenty clearly aren’t accustomed to encountering a $7.50 slice of pie. “Get ready for San Francisco prices, Boise!” warned an early Google review, also noting that “the slices are huge, the crust thick and chewy.” That review’s verdict? 5 stars.
At its cheesy core, Slice House is a dream destination for pizza junkies. So grab your credit card, throw away that diet plan and celebrate. The Treasure Valley is getting a second location this summer.
Slice House will open a new restaurant at 676 S. Edgewood Lane in southeast Eagle. It will be in the East End Marketplace development, right off of Idaho 44. There’s already a Chick-fil-A, Mo’Bettahs and Panera Bread there. No specific date has been set, but the Slice House will open in August, according to a press release.
“The success of our Meridian restaurant has reinforced the strong appetite for high-quality, artisan pizza in the region, and we’re excited to bring that same passion to Eagle,” Gemignani explained in a prepared statement. “We look forward to becoming part of the community and sharing the craftsmanship and quality ingredients that define the Slice House experience.”
Operated by the same franchisees who own the Meridian store, Slice House in Eagle will have an “expansive menu,” the release says, “featuring Gemignani’s acclaimed New York, Sicilian, Grandma, and Detroit-style pizzas, available by the slice or whole pizza. The menu will also include wings, salads, and options for gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan diners. The drink menu will feature craft beers and premium wines, in addition to non-alcoholic sodas and juices.”
At Slice House, you can choose from a mouthwatering array of colorful pizzas displayed under a warmer — and buy a piece at a time. Or you can order your own freshly made pie. A 12-inch New York-style pepperoni, for example, is $23 in Meridian; a 20-incher is $35. The highest-priced signature pizzas — round 20-inch New Yorkers or rectangular 11-by-17 Sicilians — go for $38.
Roughly 60 customers will fit inside Eagle’s new Slice House, the release says, “along with a communal outdoor patio accommodating an additional 20. It will also be available for takeout, online ordering and delivery. The restaurant will be open seven days a week, operating from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.”
A California native, Gemignani opened his first restaurant, Tony’s Pizza Napoletana, in San Francisco’s North Beach in 2009. This isn’t his first taste of Boise. During the pandemic in 2020, he opened Tony G’s Pizza, a short-lived, smaller operation, in the now-defunct Crave Delivery ghost-kitchen collective in Meridian.
Slice House was announced as a national franchise in 2022 and has quickly grown as a chain.
And even if restaurant prices in today’s American economy do sometimes raise eyebrows, it’s tough not to splurge on cream-of-the-crop pizza occasionally.
“Compared to other pizzas in the valley, this one isn’t in the same bracket!” a recent 5-star Yelp review proclaimed of the Meridian restaurant. “Always a fresh selection of pizza with a broad menu to find what you want!”