Salisbury’s Pizza in East Dallas’ Casa Linda neighborhood is a family-friendly spot run by a chef and a sommelier with fine-dining backgrounds. “We’re ready to go in a different direction,” said co-owner Julie Salisbury.
Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News
Enter Dallas’ new Salisbury’s Pizza across black-and-white checkered floors and find a seat in the same secondhand chair you’ve seen at plenty of aging restaurants in Anywhere, U.S. But this is Dallas’ newest pizza joint, opening Aug. 18, 2026, a supremely casual Casa Linda slice shop.
“Restaurants are becoming more and more expensive,” said Will Salisbury, the restaurant’s co-owner, chef and general contractor.
He thinks Dallas diners are struggling to “find the value” to eat in restaurants. So he and his wife Julie Salisbury opened a family-friendly pizza joint where kids can color on the white paper on the tabletops. Parents can order by the slice for as little as $3.95, or $22.95 for an 18-inch, one-topping pie. The menu also includes meatballs, bowls of pasta and slices of pepperoni and veggie supreme pizza for $4.95 each.
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The Salisburys spent only $500 decorating the walls with framed family photos, a stark contrast to dining rooms in Dallas where deep-pocketed owners paid millions.
“We built this place with our bare hands,” Will said.
Yet, he’s a graduate of the revered Culinary Institute of America, which landed him 16-hour-a-day cooking jobs in impressive kitchens in New Orleans, Dallas and Nantucket, Mass. Annoyingly, those jobs offered Will “an impoverished lifestyle,” he said, for most of his cooking career.
Will Salisbury, a chef, and Julie Salisbury, a wine professional, open Salisbury’s Pizza in East Dallas in mid-August 2026.
Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News
Those restaurants “were inherently exclusive,” said Julie. She’s a sommelier who met Will at Bullion, the French restaurant that closed in downtown Dallas during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, the two opened Carbone, one of the flashiest restaurants in Dallas history. Julie’s résumé includes jobs at the high-in-the-sky downtown Dallas restaurant Monarch, 55 Seventy private wine club in Preston Center and Dee Lincoln Prime, a steakhouse in Frisco.
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You can sense the pivot with Salisbury’s Pizza. “We’re ready to go in a different direction,” Julie said: “in an inclusive way.”
The Salisburys got married in December and funneled their money into the restaurant. They signed the lease in April 2026, taking a chance on a small space on the backside of a strip center near White Rock Lake and the Dallas Arboretum. It’s the former Be Home Soon restaurant at North Buckner Boulevard and Garland Road.
Rather than paying professionals to paint walls, hang fixtures or rewire the Ms. Pac-Man console, they did the work themselves with the help of YouTube.
“We’ve YOLO-ed our entire livelihood on a pizza shop in East Dallas,” Will said.
He isn’t sure if making the leap from fancy food to pizza will pay off. In a feels-right-so-far sentiment, he added: “The best rewards come with risks.”
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A pizza place that feels familiar
Salisbury’s Pizza was inspired by the pizza shop 150 feet away from Will’s childhood home in Plainview, N.Y., on Long Island. Will learned to sweep floors as a young teen at Tony D’s pizzeria. Eventually, cooks taught him to tie garlic knots.
Don’t call it a job: He did whatever the owner needed in exchange for free pizza.
After Will moved to Massachusetts in high school, a friend called him to share that Tony D’s had burned down. Will cried, surprised at how sad he felt.
“I can never go back there,” he remembers saying.
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Will Salisbury adds low-moisture mozzarella to a pizza at Salisbury’s in East Dallas.
Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News
Will Salisbury checks on a cheese pizza in the oven at his new restaurant Salisbury’s Pizza.
Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News
All pizzas at Salisbury’s in Dallas are 18 inches in diameter and made with a New York-style crust.
Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News
While Salisbury’s Pizza in Dallas is casual, wine professional and co-owner Julie Salisbury hopes some customers opt for a glass of wine with their pizza.
Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News
Salisbury’s Pizza is located in Casa Linda Plaza in East Dallas.
Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News
Twenty-three years later, Will has never found a replacement for Tony D’s. He’s now a cancer survivor and a dad, relocated to Dallas. He’s trying to salvage a slice of New York and transport it to Texas.
“Maybe people will bring their kids and get to make similar memories at my pie shop,” he said.
What to eat at Salisbury’s
Will hopes his shop “taps into a core memory” for pizza lovers. Each New York-style pizza is made with long-fermented, high-hydration dough — chef-speak for crust that’s light yet blistered, and with some chew.
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Pizzas have a blend of low-moisture mozzarella that Will has obsessed over. Pies can come topped with ricotta, stracciatella, basil pesto, sliced Anaheim peppers, Italian sausage and more.
Plenty of the business will soon go straight out the door, for delivery pies. Diners who eat inside should listen for the satisfying crack as chefs slice through piping-hot crusts.
Do as Will does and fold each slice in half, then eat.
Will Salisbury slices a cheese pizza at his restaurant in Dallas, inspired by a beloved spot near his childhood home in Long Island, N.Y.
Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News
“This is my happy place,” Will said, taking another bite, looking at the golden brown crust that bubbled imperfectly in one spot. Will is pleased with the crust, but admits he’ll probably be “fussing with the recipe forever.”
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Pizzas are made on a Marsal pizza oven, one of the only luxuries in this informal place.
It’s the “gold standard of pizza ovens in New York,” Will said. It’s also the same one from Tony D’s.
Salisbury’s Pizza is at 9540 Garland Road, Dallas. It’s expected to open Aug. 18, 2026. Hours at first will be Tuesdays through Saturdays, 3:30 to 9:30 p.m.. Take-out and dine-in available now. Delivery coming soon.
Dining and Cooking