A new pizzeria with serious New York City cred has opened in Dallas, just outside Uptown. Called Slices USA, it's a Sicilian-style pizzeria that serves pizza by the slice, with ingredients imported from Italy and a slice configuration that's square.

The concept was founded by the colorful Michael Franzese, a former capo of the Colombo mafia family, and the concept has already been featured in Forbes magazine.

According to a representative, the Dallas location is a franchise owned and operated by locals Scott Harris and Ellis Whitman. It's at 2025 Cedar Springs Rd., in a cute building that at one time was a mini-Pizza Hut.

Franzese is a native of Brooklyn with millions of followers on YouTube, who has disavowed his old life to become a writer and motivational speaker, including talking to youths and the incarcerated to discourage them from joining gangs. In 2009, he wrote a book called I'll Make You An Offer You Can’t Refuse: Insider Business Tips From a Former Mob Boss.

He founded Slices pizza with Tony Riviera, a former Colombo associate, and they opened the first location in San Francisco in 2019. They've since opened four more locations in California, with one coming soon to Seattle.

Slices is a street-side pizzeria, with square slices cooked in custom black steel pans imported from Italy. Following practices common to Neapolitan-style pizzerias, they use 00 flour from Naples and tomatoes from Campania, along with olive oil from Sicily and custom ovens hand-built in Venice.

Their dough is fermented for 72 to 96 hours and is very wet, which creates a light crispy crust with lots of air pockets.

Varieties include classics such as cheese, pepperoni, sausage & broccolini, veggie, and Hawaiian. You can get it by the slice or in whole pizza form, serving 4 to 6 people, for about $25 to $29 per pie. A slice is $4 to $5.

In addition to the classics, they have some unique signature pies including:

• Hip To Be Square, with sweet Italian sausage, pepperoni, sopressata, minced garlic, red & green peppers, onions, mushrooms & sicilian green olives
• Smoked Brisket, with BBQ sauce, mozzarella, red peppers, green peppers, mushroom, cherry tomatoes
• Chicken Bacon Ranch, with red sauce, smoked chicken, minced garlic, red & green peppers, creamy mozzarella, topped with crispy bacon & classic ranch
• BBQ Chicken, with smoked pulled chicken, red onions, BBQ sauce, mozzarella, jalapeños, cilantro
• BBQ Pulled Pork, with BBQ sauce, mozzarella, caramelized onions, red peppers, pepperoncini, green olives
• Pesto Veggie, with mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, artichoke hearts, red & green peppers, kalamata olives, mozzarella, sun-dried tomato pesto
• Chicken Pesto, with smoked chicken, pesto sauce, marinated cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, mozzarella

They do Italian sub sandwiches as well, served on housemade roman bread with arugula, roasted red pepper, pepperoncini, caramelized onions, jalapeño, marinated cucumbers, tomatoes, green olives, garlic aioli, and olive oil. Options include:

• Italian, wth provolone, salami, prosciutto cotto, sopressata, mortadella & mustard
• Meatball, with mozzarella, basil & red sauce
• Veggie, with mozzarella, ricotta, pesto sauce, zucchini, yellow squash & marinated artichokes
• Tuna Salad, with provolone
• BBQ, with smoked pulled pork or smoked brisket & BBQ sauce

They have five salads: Greek, Italian chopped, Caprese, chicken Caesar, and mixed greens; plus Buffalo wings, cheese lasagna, and Sicilian meatballs made with pork, veal, and beef.

There's no dining room, everything is to go. You can order on site, call in your order ahead, or order online. In addition to pickup, their website is live for delivery and they are also on all the big apps ( Doordash/ Uber eats/ Grubhub).