Martha Dear, founded by husband-and-wife team Demetri Mechelis and Tara Smith, launched as a carryout-only business in December 2020 — the height of COVID-19. Word spread quickly about this 38-seat subterranean Mount Pleasant pizzeria, and the duo couldn’t keep up with demand for their sourdough Neapolitan pies. In 2020, snagging a 12″ pizza from Martha Dear’s online ordering system was as competitive as acquiring Red Velvets at Georgetown Cupcakes1, in 2010. Thankfully, five years later, things have calmed down at Martha Dear.
Charmingly named after Mechelis’s Greek mother, Martha2, the restaurant is equal parts Greek Taverna, local hangout, and pizzeria. DishingPizza leaves it to less single-minded reviewers to wax poetic about Martha Dear’s non-pizza offerings.
A white-tiled Marra Forni pizza oven dominates the space behind the counter. Seeing the oven, DishingPizza‘s heart sank. A wood-fired oven’s high heat requires a very thin crust that bakes in 90 seconds or so in a 900-degree oven.
DishingPizza was puzzled by its first bite. The crust was neither thin nor floppy. The pizza didn’t present or taste like it was wood-fired. It turns out that Dear Martha’s pizza oven is fueled by gas, not wood, but the oven is a wood-fired doppelgänger. The owners decided to go with gas instead of wood to avoid the maintenance and operational hassle. Bravo.
Martha Dear pizza is spectacular. The crust is the star of the show. With its deep sourdough tang, this chewy, salty crust is delicious, in a class of its own. Mechelis combines Greek semolina flour with whole-grain flours milled at Migrash Farm in Randallstown, Maryland. Topped by a fine tomato sauce and superb mozzarella, it’s a perfectly balanced pizza with a unique flavor from a fancy Greek olive oil.
Although DishingPizza sampled Martha Dear’s base Classic Cheese pizza, it hopes to make a trip back to sample their specialty pizzas with hard-to-pronounce Mediterranean cheeses – halloumi, kefalotyri, and myzithra.
Martha Dear
3110 Mount Pleasant Street NW
Basement, Washington, DC 20010
Style: Neapolitan
Pizza quality: 🍕🍕🍕🍕
Overall experience: ⭐⭐⭐
Pie (12″): $18.00
Pie price per square inch: $0.16