When talking to Eric Mungo about his business, one thing becomes immediately clear — this guy knows pizza.

Mungo is the mind behind Pizzeria Mungo, Richmond’s newest pizzeria located on Arthur Ashe Boulevard. While the chef proprietor’s large, thin-crust pies can broadly be described as “N.Y.-style,” his original recipe takes inspiration from every corner of the country, making for a menu that is entirely his own.

Mungo’s recipe is the result of studied practice and experimentation. He started out as a pizza-making hobbyist, cooking up pies for friends and family at home. It wasn’t until he tasted a slice from Sally’s Apizza, an iconic pizzeria in New Haven, Conn., that he became inspired to truly pursue the perfect pie.

“It was pizza that I had never had before. It was on another level that I wasn’t even aware existed,” says Mungo. “And it made me think: Like, hang up, they’re doing something that I’m not doing. It inspired me to learn as much as I could about pizza — it led me down a journey of reading tons of books on bread, the science, the physics and biology of pizza dough. And that inspired me to learn more about pizza.”

Before founding his newly opened pizza spot in Scott’s Addition, Mungo spent years traveling across the country trying pies from the nation’s most iconic pizza hotspots, from New York to Portland, Ore.

On a pizza mission

Mungo previously sold pies through the ghost kitchen hub ChefSuite under the name Fire & Char Pizza Company, where the 200-square-foot kitchen space restricted him to making 14-inch pizzas. However, after the virtual food hall closed its doors last summer, Mungo had to decide whether or not to continue pursuing his pizza-making dream.

He quickly began searching for a new home for his business. “I felt my mission to serve amazing pizza to Richmond was too great,” Mungo says.

Now that Mungo has secured a brick-and-mortar location with a much bigger kitchen, his menu features 18-inch pies and pizza by the slice. He says that unlike his previous delivery only business, his new spot on the Boulevard offers the opportunity for lots of foot traffic, making it a perfect stop for visitors and residents alike to pop in for a slice.

The menu offerings of Pizzeria Mungo look slightly different from the go-to classics found at most N.Y.-style pizzerias, like meat lovers or veggie supreme. While customers are welcome to build their own slice or pie, Mungo curates a signature menu featuring elevated combinations including potato bacon and Calabrese sausage and honey.

“When I do the builds, all the toppings are very intentional, and all the flavor profiles are very well thought out,” Mungo says. “Some things get lighter ingredients and some are a little heavier, but it’s all because we’re trying to balance flavor profiles, and each signature pizza is very intentional with the toppings that it gets.”

According to Mungo, these artisan touches were also inspired by his many pizzeria visits. For his white mushroom and pesto pie, Mungo says he drew inspiration from the creations of chef Wylie Dufresne, owner of Stretch Pizza in New York. Mungo put his own twist on Dufresne’s creation by swapping white mushrooms for portobellos and formulating his own pesto cream sauce. Another offering, the rustic red pie, is somewhat an homage to New Haven-style pizza — the kind that initially sparked his path to revamping his recipe.

But he says that everything on the menu is his own unique creation.

“There are things that, yes, I’ve gotten inspiration from other people and then added my little twist to it,” Mungo says, noting that the rustic red is a tomato sauce pizza with a heavy-handed portion of American grana, which is a New Haven thing. “If you go up there and order a pie, you’re going to get a pie with just tomato sauce. You’re not getting mozzarella. If you want the mozzarella, you have to ask for the ‘mutz’…  it’s kind of like a nod to that tradition.”

While Mungo found inspiration in his trip to New Haven, he said that he does not seek to mimic the New Haven style — characterized by charred edges, chewiness and a thin crust — or any one style, for that matter. Instead, his creations are informed by his own ingenuity and, above all, a desire to offer Richmond the best pizza possible.

“I don’t like to do things average,” Mungo says. “I just want to be proud of every single pizza that goes out.”

Pizzeria Mungo is located at 1017 N Arthur Ashe Blvd. and is open 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.