Right before serving, the chef picks up a small power sander and sands off any leopard-print char spots that got a little too dark on the crust, then brushes off excess flour and oven ash from the surface — not exactly what you'd picture in a Michelin kitchen, but it's just routine procedure at Uncle Beam & His Daughter's Huge Pizza before a pie goes out. People can't help but pause and watch the whole thing before digging in.
The name is a mouthful that sounds like a translation gone wrong, but it's actually rooted in the founder's real story. Uncle Beam is a Shanghai native who originally just wanted to make pizza for his daughter, and picked fermented dough as the healthier, less bloat-inducing option. In an interview with Minhang District's integrated media center, he put it simply: "If you wouldn't serve this pizza to your own kid, don't serve it to anyone else."
The original Minhang location opened in February 2024 and quickly earned the title of "best Napoli-style pizza in suburban Shanghai" — but the out-of-the-way spot meant most people never bothered making the trip. Now Uncle Beam has opened its first downtown location in Huangpu, tucked away on a quiet residential stretch of Julu Road, finally giving people a reason to check out the hype without trekking to the suburbs.
