Seattle: What’s up with all the pop-ups? We’re not mad at it.

In fact, we’re quite excited by all of the creative cooks popping up around town doing their thing. The latest entry in the field we’re intrigued with is Swannie’s Pizza pop-up at Letterpress Distilling.

But let this serve as fair warning that you better get ’em while you can. Swannie’s is making its pies available to Seattleites for the time being but plans are in the works to eventually take the pop-up on the road south to Tacoma and Olympia.

The mastermind behind Swannie’s is Ryan ‘Swannie” Swanson. One of his first cooking jobs was slinging pizza and making chicken at the Hi-Life in Ballard. Later he went on to hone his pizza making prowess at standout joints like Delancey and Breezy Town.

It wasn’t until Swanson left his last gig at Breezy Town a couple of months back that he started to hear the “siren call” to make and take his own pizzas to the next level. “I dove in pretty deep,” said Swanson. “Testing dough formulations, ferment times, and playing with topping combos – that’s what I looked forward to doing on my time off, while I was cooking professionally full time.”

Swanson’s initial foray into the pizza pop-up scene last summer started small. From his backyard in Shoreline he would offer up 10 pies per event, mostly to his Facebook friends and IG followers. Back when he was the chef at Barnacle, a chance encounter with a customer would end up prompting him to eventually expand those backyard boundaries into Seattle. That customer was Skip, the founder, owner and chief bottle washer at Letterpress Distilling – known for their exceptional limoncello and amaro.

“We would chat about our favorite amaro, Italian food, and pizza,” recalled Swanson. “Through our conversations I found out that Skip makes pizza at home on Fridays and is basically a ‘shokunin’ in honing and practicing his craft.”

Skip and Swanson stayed in touch, so he recently asked Swanson if he would be willing to take his pizza on the road and do some pop-ups in Seattle at Letterpress. Although it took him a couple of months to gear up and get comfortable selling his pizzas to people outside of his personal network, Swanson eventually said yes.

Now, Swannie’s Pizza pop-up can be found every Saturday from 1:00 – 6:00 pm at Letterpress in SODO.

Swannie’s Pizza pop-up

For now, Swanson has planned his menu around three base pies: a red sauce (standard cheese pizza), a yellow pie (think macaroni and cheese, without the pasta) and a mushroom pie (base of sliced mushrooms covered in cheese, no sauce). 

“The red sauce will stay,” said Swanson.  “And for now I am really attached to the yellow pie, which reminds me of my maternal grandma’s mac and cheese. So that leaves the third spot to play around with – I’m looking into doing a riff on the New Haven clam pie sometime soon.”

As for toppings right now things are pretty simple with prosciutto, pepperoni, garlic, onions, black olives, and anchovies. “The more fun items are sprats,” added Swanson. “They’re small oily fish similar to sardines that are smoked and packed in oil, as well as a chili oil which is a riff on Chinese red oil.”

Prices for these Neapolitan pies start at $13 per base pizza with additional toppings being a little extra per item (.50 – $1 range). The fancy pies, like the clam pie Swanson referred to will run between $14-16.

Letterpress also serves cocktails in its outdoor seating area – just outside the distillery door. We’re eyeing the ‘Washington State Ferry’ ($12),  Skip’s take on a classic Paper Plane cocktail using his prized Amaro Amorino and Amaro Rosina aperitivo from Highside Distilling on Bainbridge Island.

You can also find Swannie’s pop-up at Fair Isle Brewing on Tuesdays from 4 – 8pm.

So, if you’re looking for a tasty pie, make sure to hit up either place soon, before Swannie’s makes their move to the south.