New pizza spot Squared Up Pizza is bringing Sicilian pies to Park Place Mall, by way of New York. Their pies are in the traditional Sicilian square, with a thicker base and crunchy crust.
It’s a substantial pizza, built for substantial toppings: Squared Up layers their pepperonis thicker than a carpet. When pepperoni is fresh, like Squared Up’s are, their slices curl at the edges into savory cups. Toppings ascend to gourmet on their white pie: jiggly, full-fat ricotta and mozzarella so fresh it makes the longest cheese pulls I’ve ever seen, tinged sweet with just a bit of honey.
A point of pride for Squared Up’s co-owners, Patrick McColley and Mariano “Mario” Badali, is that they have a filtration system that recreates the chemical composition of New York water, which legend states is responsible for the quality of New York’s pizza.
Though I’d sooner attribute the quality of New York’s pies to the generations of Italian immigrants to the boroughs — like Mario and his father, Frank, who came to New York from Sicily — what makes Squared Up’s machine special is that its intensive filtration first removes the minerals, like calcium and magnesium, that make Tucson water so hard. The euphemism is “mineral-rich.”
Water is infamously neutral; there’s no quality that describes it better than absence of taste. Though natural, minerals can make water taste like chemicals.
Patrick insisted I do a taste test. He poured me a cup of Sprite from his soda fountain and asked one of his friends in the food court to give me a taste of theirs as well. I may have been more susceptible to the placebo effect — Patrick is a big, tattooed dad, with the gentle, yet forceful, confidence of a sports coach — but I’m sensitive to hard water because my house’s tap water is basically undrinkable. The Squared Up Sprite was crystal clear.
Squared Up makes gourmet white pies with ricotta and honey alongside classic offerings like pepperoni.
Patrick had just finished barber school when the pandemic hit. He had worked his whole life in the service industry: starting as a busser at Tony Roma’s, and eventually worked his way up to serving and bartending at the Lodge at Ventana Canyon and Pinnacle Peak. It’s a hard industry; he survives it because hospitality suits his demeanor. He’d be doing this kind of work, service, trying to make people happy, regardless of whether that paid his bills.
Pandemic health restrictions encouraged men to stay inside and let their hair grow long; Patrick was out of a job. A serial entrepreneur who had already built and sold a landscaping company, Patrick took the opportunity to go on a vacation. He chose New York, during its strictest lockdown. “I had the city to myself,” he said. “I drove across the Brooklyn Bridge at 40 miles per hour.”
He had never been before, and wanted to expand his culinary horizons.
“I went around asking people where they liked to go on their birthday,” he said. “I ended up trying food from 30 different restaurants.”
But, most of all, he ate pizza.
“Growing up on Tucson’s east side, I loved New-York-style pizza,” he said. “After school, I’d go over to different pizza joints, buying a slice of cheese and a soda.” His trip to New York was a pilgrimage.
The pizza place he frequented most was the one next to his Airbnb; Village Square Pizza. It’s owned by Frank Badali, who introduced the square, Sicilian-style pie to the national icon Prince Street Pizza when he worked there. Frank’s son, Mario, was behind the counter at Village Square. Mario and Patrick hit it off.
Founders of Squared Up Pizza, Mariano "Mario" Badali (left) and Patrick McColley (right), pictured in a booth at Park Place Mall's food court.
When Patrick went home to Tucson, he got in the habit of overnighting pizza from Mario a couple times a month.
“I dropped probably $3,000 on pizza in a few months,” he said.
Tucson has delicious pizza in its own style — I am especially proud of the Sonoran-fusion pies at Neapolitan pizzerias like Family Joint — but Patrick was craving the experience he had in New York. He wanted the Sicilian squares and the New York rounds. He knew he had to bring it here himself.
He flew Mario out in December. While New York suffered a new phase of the pandemic, this time against the brutal cold, Tucsonans were dining outside on sunny patios. Mario saw the chance to start his family, a legacy of his own. He got the blessing from his father and moved out to Tucson with his wife.
After months of preparation — securing local food distributors like Merit Foods; calling in favors to get on the client list of Mario’s dad’s pepperoni guy; finding a lease with lots of foot traffic, like in New York; working out issue after issue with supply chains — Mario and Patrick officially opened their pizzeria at Park Place Mall last Saturday, Feb. 19.
Frank is coming out from Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, to give his final stamp of approval today. “I saw an opportunity — to be the first Sicilian-NY pizzeria in Tucson, to make my father proud,” Mario said.
Find Squared Up Pizza at the food court in Park Place Mall, 5870 E. Broadway. Visit their Instagram for more information.
