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Cade Mercer and Chuck Deason have been compatriots for most of their careers. When Mercer started in the kitchen at Lamberts, in Austin, in 2013, Deason was the sous chef under Reid Guess. When Guess moved to Waco to open Guess Family Barbecue, Mercer and Deason followed. In 2021 the duo combined their creative forces in Austin for CM Smokehouse, which now has three locations. They’re partnering once again on a restaurant, this time with a different focus: Outlaw Pizza opened in June, in North Austin. But where there’s Mercer and Deason, there’s bound to be barbecue too.
“I don’t really do anything without something smoked or grilled on it,” Mercer said. He’d seen too many brisket pizzas where the smoked beef was treated like pepperoni, resulting in dry chunks of meat. Mercer wanted to use the smoked brisket made at CM Smokehouse to bring a true smokiness to pizza while giving the cut some respect. His brisket ragu was born, and it’s incorporated at Outlaw as a pizza topping and base, as well as in the lasagna pinwheels, one of three house-made pasta dishes. For the lasagna, layers of the ragu, pasta, ricotta, shredded mozzarella, and muenster are swirled and tucked against one another in a bowl, resembling savory cinnamon rolls. More ragu and a garnish of fried basil and shredded parmesan top it off. The dish was easy to share, and I loved the visible, tender chunks of brisket.
The Outlaw pizza uses brisket ragu as its base and adds meatballs, pepperoni, and sausage on top. I found it overloaded, but Mercer said it’s beloved by the meat-lover crowd. I preferred building my own pizza with a base of brisket ragu and just cheese on top. Much like how sliced brisket should be eaten first from a barbecue platter, a pie with brisket ragu must be consumed right as it hits the table, otherwise the crisp crust can go soggy in a few minutes. (Though I loved the way the cheese and ragu solidified as the pizza cooled.)
For a sturdy crust that lasts, I recommend starting with a white pizza of shredded cheese, ricotta, garlic, and parmesan and adding arugula and brisket jam made with chopped brisket, caramelized onions, bourbon, brown sugar, and red-wine vinegar on top, as Mercer suggested. The jam has a scoopable consistency when it’s cold but spreads into pools of savory sweetness on a hot pizza. The arugula doesn’t go on until the pie is out of the oven, and it tricks your brain into thinking you’re eating something on the lighter side. I’d order this one every time.
Lasagna pinwheels made with brisket ragu. Photograph by Daniel Vaughn 
Cade Mercer. Photograph by Daniel Vaughn
That sourdough crust has a story of its own. Mercer and Deason are friends with local restaurateurs Margarita Kallas-Lee and Phillip Frankland Lee, who run the Scratch Restaurants group. Kallas-Lee received a sixty-year-old sourdough starter from a customer, and she gifted a portion of the starter to Mercer and Deason for Outlaw Pizza. Their building’s previous tenant specialized in Neapolitan-style pizza, so Mercer and Deason considered using the wood-fired oven that was left behind, but they decided they liked New York–style pizza better, so they sprung for a Moretti Forni electric oven.
They also had to learn how to make restaurant-quality pizza. “I hadn’t done pizza dough in fifteen years,” Deason said. He and Mercer worked for months to get the dough recipe and oven temperature right. They studied the Modernist Pizza guidebooks to refine their technique, and Mercer toured New York City for inspiration. He chose that particular oven because it is used at L’Industrie, his favorite pizza joint in Williamsburg. The fact that L’Industrie also uses sourdough for its crust was just a coincidence.
Deason and Mercer are wizards with wing flavors at CM Smokehouse, which is the first place I ever ate a lemon-pepper rib wing. (Yes, they turned smoked ribs into wings.) Deason wanted to get just as creative for the smoked-and-fried chicken wings at Outlaw Pizza. He found a tomato-forward seasoning powder called Gabagool and figured it was just what he needed to create his chicken-parmesan wings. “It smells like concentrated pizza dust,” Deason said. Deason blooms the seasoning in hot oil, then uses it to coat the wings as they come out of the fryer. They’re topped with more Gabagool, a little salt, and a hearty amount of shredded parm, and I can tell you they tasted just as advertised.
Outlaw Pizza also offers a full bar with a cocktail menu that I didn’t sample. Its hefty mozzarella sticks are house-made; the Caesar salad dressing contains beef tallow; and the meatball flight includes a selection made from beef, pork, and elk. Sandwiches include smoked turkey and a caprese to which I recommend you add brisket jam.
With Outlaw’s variety of specialty pizzas and unusual toppings, don’t overlook the pepperoni pizza. Charred cups of pork dotted the layer of browned cheese in what I consider the platonic ideal of a pepperoni pizza. The crust was slightly charred along the edge yet chewy, soft, and a bit acidic, and the bottom stayed crisp. The little pockets of grease that pooled at the bottom of each pepperoni cup were like a dare to the napkin-dabbers who sabotage their own potential joy.
The gluten-free crowd can also experience the joy of these pizzas, although these crusts are prepackaged and made from various starches. They’re available only in the fourteen-inch size, but unlike at most pizza joints, there is no upcharge for the different dough. For dessert, a stack of zeppole (fried dough balls) is also gluten-free and comes with a chocolate dipping sauce. It was easier to share than the olive oil cake, which was equally delicious.
If I lived in the neighborhood, Outlaw Pizza would already be in my regular restaurant rotation. The place feels comfortable, the classics are satisfying, and owners push just enough into the realm of smoked meats to keep it interesting but not feeling like barbecue stunt food. “We’re different in the way we cook, and we don’t follow rules,” Mercer said. Outlaw Pizza has given them the freedom to show it.
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