Essential Pizzeria The Backspace Is Bringing Neapolitan Pizza to Crestview

The Backspace, one of Austin’s essential pizzerias and crucial downtown restaurants, is expanding with a second location, as reported by CultureMap Austin. The expansion will be found at 1745 West Anderson Lane, Suite 400. This new location will also serve pasta and have a full bar, both firsts for the the restaurant. It’s expected to open sometime in the spring.

The intimate downtown restaurant is known for, yes, those Neapolitan pies fired up in a wood-fired pizza sourced from Naples, Italy. Then there’s panini (made with Easy Tiger bread), salads, appetizers, wine, and beer. This new restaurant will also

Under Backspace’s parent company Parkside Projects, chef and owner Shawn Cirkiel opened the original Backspace in 2010, just around the corner from his first Austin restaurant Parkside (which had opened in 2008).

More recently, Cirkiel opened the second location of Parkside within the Austin airport as of November. The restaurant company also shuttered the North Lamar location of its juice shop Jugo in September, which had opened in January. The juice bar still operates locations in downtown Austin and the airport, too.

Just across the way, gas station convenience store Sunrise Mini Mart is also opening a natural wine bar, where manager Sam Rozani had been thinking about serving a small menu of Neapolitan pies too. Backspace’s Crestview pizza neighbors also include DeSano Pizzeria, Little Deli, and Conans Pizza North.

Other Parkside Projects restaurants include Italian restaurant Olive & June, Tex-Mex restaurant Vamanos (which had originally been tapas restaurant Bullfight), and two event spaces.

February 7: This article has been updated to include Backspace’s projected opening season on West Anderson Lane, as well as menu updates.

• 8 things to know in Austin food right now: Backspace squeezes into new Crestview location [CultureMap Austin]
• All Coverage of Backspace [EATX]
• All Coverage of Parkside Projects [EATX]