San Antonio – San Antonio truly is one of the most fantastic places in the great state of Texas. You’ve got history, the culture, and of course the Riverwalk. Then again, I might be a little bit biased towards this town because the Alamo City is where I got married. I’ve also got massive number of memories from coming here as kid to celebrating the 200th episode of The Texas Bucket List at the Alamo back in 2021.
All those stories revolve around time spent on the Riverwalk and just a few feet from the La Vallita River Theatre, where my wife and I took our engagement pictures, you’ll find Fuime. “Great atmosphere, great view, right by the river, couldn’t get any better,” said customer Keith Clark. “This is so awesome to be so close to the water, have people walking by,” said customer Cheri Clark.
Benjamin Callahan is the Executive Chef at Fuime and the self-proclaimed Army brat moved to San Antonio during Elementary school. In 2012 he graduated from the Culinary Institute and has been in the industry ever since. His goal when it comes to great food. “Trying to elevate the food and the culture here,” Ben said.
He said it’s difficult having many competing restaurants down the river, but if you have something that people can relate to, something that people want, then you’re just giving comfort food something new that they haven’t seen before. It doesn’t hurt having your pizza oven and kitchen right on the Riverwalk. “That’s one thing that draws people to Fiume. I think a lot of them are from different cities, different countries even, and they come, and they see the oven and they see it on the Riverwalk and they’re like, ‘Oh, wow, this is the first place I’ve seen that’s like home,’” Ben said.
Now Fuime doesn’t just make run of mill pizza, oh no, these pies have Texas pizzaz. “Whatever we can add to it to make it more Texas-infused with local farmers,” Ben explained.
All good pizza starts with a dough, right? With the help of fellow chef Cynthia, Ben got things started on three different types of pizzas all of which consist of house made dough with Texas grains.
The first tossed-to-order pizza pie Ben put together is the Sweet Texas Heat. “We’re going to start with our white sauce, which is ricotta-based. It’s got some black garlic in there, too, which we get from Texas,” Ben said. Mozzarella cheese, bacon smoked for 48 hours and Calabrian chilis are added.
The Chorizo Quesa Flameado pizza starts with roasted poblano cream sauce, chorizo, and roasted corn.
Finally, the Funghi pizza has ricotta based white sauce, locally sourced mushrooms cooked in garlic and oil, and caramelized Texas onions.
Those three pies head into the oven. Ben heats the oven to 650, sometimes 700 degrees to speed up the baking process. He said turning up the speed at which the over rotates gives the pizzas a more even heat. “So, it’s extremely hot in the center, that’s kind of our finishing area, so we try to go on the outside and then we just kind of rotate in as it’s cooking.”
The baking process doesn’t take long. “As you can see, they start to bubble up, crisp up. So, once I see that all sides are kind of bubbling off that floor, I’ll start to move them around and hit another hotspot.”
Ben pulls out the pies and finishes them all off with olive oil and special seasoning on the crust. The Sweet Texas Heat gets then gets basil and local honey, the chorizo pizza puts on queso fresco, in house pickled onions, micro cilantro, and chipotle crema. Finally, the Funghi is finished with a little lettuce and truffle oil.
All right, so here we have three fantastic pizzas in front of me, and I can tell you the truffle oil coming off that Funghi smells fantastic, so I want to save that one for last and go straight into the Sweet Texas Heat. Well, the flavors of the Texas heat just keep going. You bite in, you get an initial bit of that sweetness, but then the heat just lingers, and it is fantastic.
“The bacon on it is delicious, the crust is perfect, and then it has that little drizzle of honey, which just gives you the sweet and savory all at the same time. It was awesome,” said customer Cheri Clark.
“It had great spice to it, that little sweet of honey. It was fantastic,” said customer Keith Clark.
Now that we have a little mariachi music behind me, it’s time to dip into the chorizo pizza. That’s what I love about the Riverwalk, right here.
I’ve never had corn on a pizza before, it is very interesting, all that little popping there. Not a real spicy pizza, just more of a Southwest flare to that one. That crust is fantastic. You definitely do get a little doughy, a little crispy, and then that seasoning on top just gives it another kick.
And then finally, the Funghi. I’m not going to lie; the truffle oil has got me extremely excited for this one. All those locally grown Texas mushrooms of different shapes and sizes combined with the caramelized onions, give it an incredible flavor profile.
Fiume definitely serves up some unique pizzas. “It gives you a chance to have that Texas flair to the Italian pizza, it’s a little bit of a different take,” said customer Cheri Clark.
Well, if you’re ever in San Antonio and looking for some pizza with some Texas pizzazz, come in to Fiume on the Riverwalk. It’s definitely well worth a stop on The Texas Bucket List. “Trying to be unique and different and have a voice. I think every chef, every cook wants that, and it’s nice to do it right here, downtown on the Riverwalk and have a space to do it in,” Ben said.