While he’s busy with his wildly successful Graffiti Bao restaurant and consulting and working on two more thriving local eateries in Locale and Egg Sammie, Marc Marrone has found the time and energy to launch a new pizza passion project. Gemma Gemma’s Square Pies is definitely a labor of love, but it was also a necessary mission for the chef and restaurateur.

“I’ve really been fighting this entire time not to have to lay anybody off,” Marrone says of operating during the pandemic. “I had a deal to go into the Raiders’ stadium [with a concession stand], and then they made the announcement that they’d be playing games without fans, and that put a serious hang-up in our plans.”

Marrone had already hired a team to run his Allegiant Stadium food spot, so in order to keep his staff together—and to try out a concept with which he’d been toying—he launched the new pizza operation from his Graffiti Bao kitchen.

The quirky name and the style and shape of the pies are inspired by family. “I’m the worst Catholic in my family, but I do know that when you are confirmed, you take a confirmation name,” Marrone says. “My grandmother’s middle name is Gemma. The joke is she loved her middle name so much she took it twice, because when she was confirmed, it was registered as Anita Gemma Gemma Marrone.”

The 6-by-6-inch Sicilian slices he’s making are inspired by a New York City hole in the wall his father loved when Marrone was growing up. He didn’t like square pizza—and particularly hated the middle piece “with no crust or edge”—but it was Dad’s favorite.

This unique style of pizza is also born from the restrictions of cooking in a Chinese restaurant kitchen without a traditional pizza oven. Marrone crafted a dough recipe that ferments for three days, developing memorable flavor and texture, and he bakes the slices in individual pans to create a crispy bottom, an airy bite in the middle and the extra corner edges he wanted as a kid. The signature vodka sauce and pepperoni slice ($5.88) is a great intro, and you can customize your slice or each square in a four-slice pie ($19) with separate toppings.

Gemma Gemma’s also serves two Italian torpedo sandwiches Marrone used to share with his father—roasted and sliced pork with sharp provolone picante, broccolini, pickled peppers and au jus; and a sub with slow-roasted beef, peppers, arugula, pickled onion and herb mayo (both $8).

“They’re super nostalgic, real New York, East Coast sandwiches,” Marrone says. “Even the bags the sandwiches come in are literally the same bags from the ’80s and ’90s. That pork with provolone, I hated that sandwich as a kid, but my dad thought it was the best. Now I love it. He used to say, ‘Listen, kid, you don’t like Scotch now either, but you’re gonna love it one day.”

Rounding out the menu are garlic-Parmesan chicken wings ($8.88), fresh mozzarella sticks ($6.88), a chopped salad with roasted peppers and spicy capicola ($7.88), and garlic cheese bread ($6.88).

Gemma Gemma has been garnering early attention, possibly because nearby neighborhoods like Mountain’s Edge aren’t flush with non-franchise pizza options. Marrone thinks the concept has legs and could quickly outgrow the shared kitchen, and he’ll add items like baked pasta dishes and more sandwiches if expansion occurs. For now, it’s all about perfecting the pizza, holding prices down and keeping people on the job.

“It had to be cost-effective. Unemployment is a problem. [At] Graffiti Bao, we made sure to keep the price point where people could afford it,” he says. “People still want to eat out. We want to take care of the community more and offer something unique.”