Oath Pizza arrives in West Hartford with an emphasis on 3 minutes pies made how you like it
At Oath Pizza, it’s all about the crust. In 2015, Doug Ferriman experimented with crust recipes and came up with one he thought was perfect: thin, grilled and seared in avocado oil. With that crust as the foundation, he opened the first Oath Pizza, on Nantucket.
Since then, Oath has expanded to 18 locations, in Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey and South Carolina. Its first Connecticut location opened July 14 in West Hartford’s Blue Back Square. Another Connecticut location, in Darien, will open in the coming months.
Nine of those Oath locations on are on college campuses. “Colleges like us because we can feed everybody. We can make pizzas gluten free. We can make them dairy free. Everything we make is nut free,” said Mila Trevithick, who has worked at eight Oath Pizza locations and is opening the West Hartford one.
Oath also prides itself on how fast it can get out a pizza. “A lot of places, it takes 15 minutes or so to get the pizza out. Our goal each time is 3 minutes,” Trevithick said.
That goal is helped along by Oath’s conveyor-belt Ovention oven, which pushes out the pizza about a minute and a half after it is placed on the belt.
Before going into the oven, the crust — either that avocado oil-seared crust or a crust made from chickpeas, available in the personal size only — is spread with sauce, cheese, veggies and proteins. Then is it placed on the belt. After it emerges, the pizza gets a topping of Grana Padano cheese, a sprinkling of fresh basil shaken right off the stem, and any other requested garnish. Then it is ready to roll out the door.
Trevithick said customers should keep that speed in mind when ordering with the Oath app. The Blue Back Square location is almost entirely takeout-oriented, with just a few tables.
Sauce can be tomato, basil pesto (without pine nuts,) garlic oil or truffle spread. Cheese options are mozzarella blend, feta, ricotta, fresh mozzarella or vegan. Proteins include pepperoni, Italian sausage, smoked bacon, roasted chicken or Beyond crumbles. Veggie topping options are artichoke hearts, baby spinach, banana peppers, pineapple, green peppers, jalapenos, kalamata olives, mushrooms, pickled red onion, red onion, roasted cherry tomatoes, roasted garlic and roma tomatoes. Additional garnishes are balsamic, BBQ, crushed red pepper, ranch, scallions, spicy aioli, sriracha and wild Italian oregano.
Pizzas come in personal-sized thin crust or large-size thick crusts. Large thick crust pizzas start at $21 and build from there based on the number of toppings. Personal cheese pizzas are $11 and up.
Sides like cheesy garlic breadsticks ($8) and BBQ bacon breadsticks ($9) look like pizzas, but smaller and with different ingredients. So does one dessert, chocolate chunk cookie pizza, which sells for $8 and has chocolate chunk cookie dough, ricotta, chocolate drizzle and powdered sugar, on a little crust. Kids’ pizzas are $7 to $8. Salads are available.
Oath Pizza, 67 Memorial Road in Blue Back Square in West Hartford, is open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week. Find more at oathpizza.com.
Susan Dunne can be reached at sdunne@courant.com.
