Old-fashioned pizza for Fishtown

Beer brewer turned pizza maven Joe Beddia has obtained zoning approval for his Girard Avenue parlor, Pizzeria Beddia, at 115 E. Girard Ave., replacing a deli at Shackamaxon Street.

Beddia, a self-described pizza nerd, picked up management and pie knowledge with jobs at Tria, Osteria, South Philadelphia Tap Room and Madison, Wis.'s Pizza Brutta before he landed at Zavino.

Unlike all those newfangled/oldfangled Neapolitan brick-oven pies out there, Beddia says he is going with a brick-lined Montague deck oven to do his 18-inch pizzas.

He expects to open next year, as he joins other Fishtown newcomers Fette Sau and Bubba's Texas BBQ.

Whether it's a brick oven or gas-fired, that's not the secret, Beddia says. "It's in the technique and the fermentation," he said.

"It may sound cheesy, but it's how much care you put into it."