Pizza Truck Opens 1st Brick-And-Mortar Location In Anne Arundel County

ANNAPOLIS, MD — The newest pizza shop in Annapolis celebrated its grand opening on Friday after a year in a food truck, bringing late-night pies to City Dock.

Secret Spot Pizza Co. is already so popular that it sold out of dough at its Thursday soft opening for friends and family. The eatery served 400 pies in three hours from its stand inside Annapolis Market House.

The keys to such a speedy operation are the 900-degree ovens that cook pizzas in 3.5 minutes. The ovens on the food truck are even faster, baking pies in 90 seconds.

Secret Spot Partner Chris Canty described their "hybrid dough" as "in between a New York and a Neopolitan."

"You get the browning and the crunch, the crispiness of a New York style, but inside of the cornerstone of the dough, it's still light and fluffy," Canty told Patch in an exclusive interview. "There's a ton of flavor in the dough."

The menu features five classic pizzas: cheese, veggie, vodka sauce with pepperoni, mortadella with pesto and marinara with burrata. Hot honey is available as an add-on.

Secret Spot will soon add monthly specialty pizzas to supplement its classics.

The recipes call for organic Bianco DiNapoli Tomatoes from northern California and Grande Cheese, a brand founded by an Italian immigrant. The meats are all Italian.

The menu is already decorated with three $20 bills from some of Secret Spot's first sales.

The idea for the Secret Spot food truck started on a golf course in Arizona. Canty and his partner, Tom Hanna, were inspired to open a brick-and-mortar location after seeing a similar concept at a market in Charleston, South Carolina. That vision quickly became a reality at Annapolis Market House.

"This would be awesome to have a pizza spot in a market like this in Annapolis," Canty remembers thinking. "A month later, we're opening today at 5 ... It's chaos, but it's fun."

Canty has worked at pubs in Annapolis and Baltimore since 2007, including a 15-year stint at Dock Street Bar & Grill. Relying on his eight years of owning the Brown Bag Industries clothing line, Canty already has merchandise available for Secret Spot.

"I think people are excited to have some pizza downtown," Canty said. "[We] just want to give people some good pizza and good merch and see where it goes."

Hanna brings nearly 14 years of experience as a managing partner at Metropolitan Kitchen and Lounge on West Street.

Secret Spot has a staff of 10 at 25 Market Space. Along with Canty and Hanna, there are four employees in the front of the house and another four in the back.

The team will whip up pizzas from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Friday and Saturday hours are 11 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. The stand is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Secret Spot will continue serving private events out of its food truck. The business recently catered the season kick-off for the University of Maryland baseball team. Weddings and banquets are among the food truck's other common events.

The truck offers an expanded menu. Options include seared tuna, wagyu smash burgers and stuffed lobster tails.

Customers can learn more by visiting secretspotannapolis.com or following the business on Facebook and Instagram.