Black-Owned Pizza Restaurant Nashville | Hip-Hop Artisan Pizza & Craft Beer | Slim & Husky’s

Slim & Husky’s Pizza Beeria is Nashville’s Black-owned pizza empire — and it started with $3,000, a garage, and three childhood best friends who refused to build somewhere safe.

Clint Gray, EJ Reed, and Derrick Moore grew up together in Nashville, went to Tennessee State University together, and dreamed together. After turning a moving company into a seven-figure exit, they put everything into a passion project: a fast-casual, artisan pizza joint rooted in hip-hop culture, Black community, and food that actually has personality. They didn’t open in the trendy part of town. They opened on Buchanan Street in North Nashville — a historically Black neighborhood where, as Gray put it, “there wasn’t an open business for 16 blocks.” All boarded up. All waiting. And they were on a vengeance to bring it back.

That was March 2017. Today, Slim & Husky’s has locations across Tennessee, Georgia, and California. They are the first Black-owned restaurant on Nashville’s famous Broadway strip. They serve pizza inside Nissan Stadium to Tennessee Titans fans. They have a location at BNA airport. They were named a 2023 James Beard Award semifinalist for Outstanding Restaurateur — one of the highest honors in American dining. The Daily Meal ranked them #5 on its 101 Best Pizzas in America list.

Nashville’s Black-Owned Pizza Restaurant That Changed the Game

The menu is the story. Signature pizzas named after hip-hop culture: the Got 5 on It (a five-cheese masterpiece), the Rony Roni Rone (a pepperoni overload nodding to Tony Toni Toné), the California Love (a veggie delight), and the Nashville Hot Chicken pizza — spicy chicken blend, jalapeño, banana peppers, and hot honey drizzle. Build your own with one fixed price and as many toppings as you want. House-made signature drizzles. Crowd-favorite cinnamon rolls. Local craft beer. Every ingredient made in-house, no freezers, no shortcuts.

But Slim & Husky’s has always been more than a pizza restaurant. It’s a community engine. Before the first brick-and-mortar opened, Gray, Reed, and Moore were feeding hundreds of pizzas to the homeless and hosting neighborhood meetings in their garage — taking community feedback before a single dollar had been spent on a storefront. They offer the PREAM Scholarship to graduating Nashville seniors. They host community events, support local artists, and show up for their neighborhoods in ways that don’t make press releases.

“We’re not just a pizza company,” says Gray. “It’s pizza, art, and music.”

This is what Black excellence at scale looks like. Built from the ground up, rooted in the community that raised them, and carrying the proof that it’s possible — for everyone coming up behind them.

📍 Multiple locations across Nashville, Memphis, Murfreesboro, Atlanta & beyond 🌐 slimandhuskys.com · @slimandhuskys 🛵 Delivery: UberEats, DoorDash, Grubhub