Over the last five years he and his wife, Leith Leiser-Miller, put down roots in Sebastopol, serving Roman-style pizza topped with seasonal ingredients from local farms at Psychic Pie, No. 69 on the Chronicle’s Top 100 Bay Area Restaurants list. But now, for their first-ever expansion, they plan to open in the city.
Their incoming restaurant, named Slice Wolf, will be a Roman-style pizza counter offering six or seven pies with creative topping combinations, such as gochujang Amatriciana, with a porky, spicy tomato sauce and provolone. They are still in lease negotiations so did not disclose the restaurant’s location, but hope to open in early 2027. Slice Wolf will join an increasingly heated pizza scene in San Francisco, with newcomers like Jules and Berkeley’s acclaimed Rose Pizzeria and Oakland’s Mama’s Boy moving across the Bay.
“We love being up in the North Bay, but I’ve really missed the energy of the city and that quick, grab-and-go slice vibe. I’m very excited to spend more time in the city again,” Ludlow said.
Unlike at Psychic Pie — where customers order pizza cut with scissors, measured by the inch or fingers, and sold by weight — Slice Wolf will offer 8-by-8-inch pies whole or pre-cut into 4-inch squares. And toppings won’t be limited to seasonal produce and cheese from Sonoma County farms. “Local sourcing limits exclude some things that I would like to serve,” Ludlow said. For the new restaurant, Ludlow is developing a new sourdough recipe that he says yields a lighter dough than Psychic Pie’s.
The San Francisco shop will serve a funeral potato pizza, named for a casserole commonly served at Mormon funerals. A nod to Ludlow’s Mormon upbringing, it will be topped with tater tots, caramelized onions, sour cream, cheddar and corn flakes. “Funeral potatoes were always the thing that you looked forward to at a funeral,” he said.
Psychic Pie began as a square pie pop-up touring Wine Country and the North Bay in 2021. In 2022, Ludlow and Leiser-Miller opened their first restaurant in Sebastopol, becoming a destination for Roman-style pizzas made from a high-hydration sourdough that rests for 72 hours and topped with ingredient combinations such as mortadella with nettle-pistachio pesto and stracciatella, or capicola with pickled beets.
“Psychic veers off with exceptional sourdough and fun, off-the-wall topping combinations. From asparagus partnered with piquant pimento cheese to rich cured meats draped over beets, every option has its own flavorful story to tell,” Chronicle restaurant critic Cesar Hernandez wrote in a 2024 review.