Beau
Owner/Pizzaiolo
Pizza wasn’t always the plan for Alberta’s owner and pizzaiolo, Beau Mitall.
A Pittsburgh boy, Beau left the Steel City as a teen in pursuit of art fame, studying at New York City’s School of Visual Arts. The 20 years he spent living and working in New York exposed Beau to pizza of all kinds, from dollar slices to the city’s legendary pizzarias.
But when love took him to South Africa in 2004, he realized that good pizza isn’t always so easy to come by. So when Beau began running his wife's traditional South African restaurant in 2006, he took the opportunity to try his hand at making a few pies of his own for staff and friends, without much success.
In 2008, Beau returned to New York and fell in love again. This time with a small, Napoli style pizzeria in the East Village. It was some of the best he had ever had, but was mostly empty and overshadowed by neighboring slice joints. Some might say that this is where Alberta’s really began because as Beau fell deeper and deeper into the traditions of Naples pizza making, he became determined to make quality pizza using those same hand made traditions.
Beau returned home to Pittsburgh in 2015, now with his family in tow, and officially founded Alberta’s Pizza, named in honor of his late mother, Alberta Gail. Started as a pop-up and then a truck that served more than a dozen breweries and events around the Pittsburgh area, Beau began making plans for a more permanent home in 2023.
And that’s how we’re here at 917 Western Ave, still hand mixing dough every day and making fresh mozzarella. The way it was intended. No substitutions.
Micah
Chef/Bandana Enthusiast
Born in Utah and raised in Idaho, Chef Micah Maughan’s career began at a restaurant in Salt Lake City where a mentor encouraged him to check out certain chefs and advised him that if he wanted to get serious about food, he needed to be in New York.
So that’s where he went - but first he took a detour to Las Vegas where he worked as a prep cook at the satellite restaurant for New York’s esteemed French restaurant, Lutèce. Eventually that job transitioned into a role at the New York location where he worked off and on for four years.
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Other New York stints included working for famed French chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten at Spice Market - as well as traveling and opening restaurants with him, consulting on new restaurants, working for Gordon Ramsay at Maze, and then finally the kitchen at The W Hotel.
But after nine years and a recession in New York, Micah needed a change of pace and after a few brief spells around the country he ended up in Pittsburgh in 2010. He started out at Tamari and Root 174 before stepping back as a chef and picking up some gigs consulting and catering in order to spend more time with his son.
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In 2020 he co-opened bike-based food cart Soul Biscuit which had early success thanks to pandemic rules around food at breweries, but when he looked into the numbers for an expansion, they just didn’t make sense and he had to let go of the business.
But the loss of Soul Biscuit was Alberta’s gain and Micah started working together with Beau on the truck. We’re lucky to have such an accomplished chef here with us in the kitchen.
And when he’s not in the kitchen, Micah enjoys biking and getting skull tattoos. ​
Alberta Gail
Mom
Our namesake, Alberta Gail Huffman was born and raised in the Poconos, a career school teacher, and an accomplished tennis player.
No, these aren’t her pizza recipes, but rather Beau named the restaurant after his mom to motivate him to always keep the business going and growing.
A collector of bunny rabbits, the rabbit painting behind the bar is a gentle nod to Alberta.
