With Third Time’s the Charm, an Exciting New Pizzeria Emerges in Red Hook

1. It all started with Julia Child.

When former commercial litigator Chris Milazzo sought a career change in 2021, he didn’t expect pizza would be his thing. “At the end of my run at the law firm, I was burnt out, exhausted. They let me take a three-month sabbatical, and I started cooking from the Julia Child cookbook; it was a true ‘Julie & Julia’ kind of thing,” says Milazzo.

At first, he dabbled in the sweeter side of baking. A month in, he arrived at the pastry section of the cookbook and began making croissants. He’d take them by the trayful to nearby Cobble Hill Park with a sign that read, “Saison to Taste,” along with a portable credit card reader, and sold them for $1 apiece. “They were really sh**ty croissants,” recalls Milazzo, “but people were really nice — I maybe made $50.”

The day he returned to work, in the summer of 2021, Milazzo sat at his desk for a moment, then went to his managing partner’s office and put in his two weeks’ notice. He went immediately back to his kitchen.

Soon thereafter, in October of 2021, a bartender at Grimm Artisan Ales said the brewery was looking to bring in pop-up vendors. “I didn’t really have an idea of what that would entail,” says Milazzo, “so I brought hundreds of croissants, kouign amann, and brioche.” It didn’t take long for him to realize that no one really wanted more sugary carbohydrates while drinking beer, and in January of 2022 he began his pizza program.

2. The birth of ‘Bad Cholesterol.’

When Milazzo transitioned to making pizza, he called the new endeavor “Bad Cholesterol,” in honor of his blood test results after leaving his former litigation job. Milazzo bought dozens of bags of all-purpose flour from the grocery store, nice buffalo mozzarella from Paisanos, his local butcher, Bianco DiNapoli tomatoes, pulled out a Ken Forkish recipe, and went from there.

He started with an Ooni 12 portable pizza oven. “As I got better, I burnt the control knobs off,” he says. His next oven was a Gozney Roccbox, followed by two Breville Pizzaiolos, and then back to Oonis (many of which you’ll see in operation at his restaurant today — they circumvent having no gas and still imbue pies with wood-fired flavor). In October of 2021, he incorporated Bad Cholesterol, and returned to Grimm to make Roman-style pizza al taglio.

“It was more like really bad focaccia — pre-made slices that I’d heat up and serve,” Milazzo says. But by the next year, he was making what he calls “neo-Neapolitan” pizzas, cooking smaller pies, faster than he had before. He started gaining a following, teaming up with Talea brewery’s Cobble Hill outpost to serve his pies over the past year-and-a-half, and using nearby Nimbus Kitchen in Downtown Brooklyn as his commissary for concocting sauces and proofing doughs. The orders kept coming and Milazzo needed help to keep up. Luckily, his now-partner Sean Klim answered the call.

Klim, who co-owns a small accounting firm, had been following Bad Cholesterol on Instagram for a while, and when he saw Milazzo post a job opening for an assistant of sorts on Culinary Agents, he jumped at the opportunity. Although Klim had no prior experience when it came to making pizza, he had always dreamed of opening a bar, and thought this was his chance to get in the business. “I sent Chris a photo of bread I made at home, then he had me come out for a trial,” Klim recalls.

“Any warm body will do,” jokes Milazzo, who was actually in search of someone without pizza experience. “I love collecting professionals who want to get out of their jobs,” he says. Bad Cholesterol currently has a physicist and journalist on staff, too.

At first, Klim delivered pizza and worked in the commissary, but when Milazzo decided he wanted to open a brick-and-mortar, he asked Klim to be a partner in the business.

3. There’s a story behind the name.

While Milazzo admits that many more attempts at such a business have been made, the name Third Time’s the Charm refers to something different. Initially, he and Klim had hoped to open a restaurant in the former Farina space under the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway on Hamilton Avenue, and before Farina was there, it was occupied by Pizza Moto. Therefore, the third time’s the charm was initially a reference to opening a pizza place in that location. Unfortunately, the deal didn’t work out, but the name stuck.

Their first conversations with Farina were in January 2025. In May, they found out that the once-GrindHaus space in Red Hook was available and took action. One look at the zebra-striped ceiling — which they’re mostly covering up with tin, but are hoping to honor in some way — and small wooden bar with a huge, enclosed, heated outdoor space, and Milazzo was sold. Two weeks later, they had a restaurant.

Since then, a local fabricator, Matthew Grandin, has installed a beautiful white oak bar, cabinetry, and paneling. They’ve refinished the original floors and outdoor space, and added an awning and some copper on the outdoor siding, which they’re polishing and sealing as they ready to open.

4. The menu involves Koji flour and Jersey canned tomatoes.

Milazzo says he’s aiming to make his version of Brooklyn-style pizza at Third Time’s the Charm. “We’re not doing AVPN [Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana],” he says. “We want it to be simple, punchy — we paint in primary colors and don’t do wild combos of stuff.” There’s no gas in the kitchen, so most of the pies will come out of wood-fired ovens — look for a light leoparding effect (small, dark charred marks) on the crust.

Milazzo has mastered an all-sourdough, naturally leavened dough that he cold ferments for three to five days, making it easier to stretch for 12-inch pies. For now, he’s using a mix of Caputo flour and malted wheat that he gets from Grimm but, always the tinkerer, he’s also playing around with a Mockmill to grind his own grains. On top of that, “We’re also making our own koji, upping the umami to make tomatoes taste more like tomatoes,” says Milazzo. To make the koji, he adds koji spores from amazake that he purchases from Los Angeles, adding it to par-cooked jasmine rice.

Canned tomatoes come from a small company called First Field in New Jersey. “They’re really bright and acidic like San Marzanos,” Milazzo says. Expect salami from Manhattan’s Italian deli Salumeria Biellese atop pies as well.

The pizza menu will showcase a classic margherita ($29), a spicy version of a margherita with sweet Italian sausage ($30), a Mushroom Supreme ($33), and a White Lotus Season 2 ($28) pie with mozzarella, red onion, Calabrian chile, pistachio, agave, extra virgin olive oil, and Parmigiano, which is heavily inspired by the Partanna slice at F&F Pizzeria. There’s also the Lite Lime ($32), which has black pepper, parm, pecorino, and lime. A completely vegan Gowanus Goddess ($28) has tomato, Calabrian chile, red onion, garlic slivers, Sicilian oregano, and extra virgin olive oil. Look for more locally and globally inspired pizzas once they settle in. All pies are meant to serve two.

5. The bar bites more than deliver.

“We want a real happy hour, two for ones … accessible beer and wines, not Budweiser, but crushable, enjoyable glasses that are responsibly affordable,” Klim, who also serves as beverage director, says. The cocktail list includes tongue-in-cheek riffs on classics. There’s a Wrong Island Iced Tea ($15) with everything from vodka, rum, Tequila, gin, sparkling grapefruit, to house grenadine, as well as a Body in the Canal ($16) made with Mezcal, Scotch, almong, lime, and black lime salt. The Mike’s Matcha Daiquiri ($14) features aged Jamaican rum that’s been infused with matcha, along with lime and sugar.

With Sam Savage as chef de cuisine, Third Time’s the Charm is also bringing bar snacks to the menu — all riffs on franchise food favorites, like blooming onions and chicken nuggets. Trademark Infringement ($16) pairs fried onion petals with a “zesty” sauce, while Chicken Nugs ($16) go together with a gochujang-laced Gochu dip. There’s also a Cold Carbonara ($16) made with ditalini pasta, egg, guanciale, peas, sweety drops, pecorino, and parmesan. And the Caesar Frites ($34) is an ideal pairing of their Caesar salad and fries, served with spicy tomato jam and toum.

“This isn’t a pretentious competition-y prime real estate establishment — it’s for families, locals, with the vibe of a bar that’s a supper club for the rest of us,” Milazzo notes.

Fans of the original pop-up need not worry, however. “Bad Cholesterol is not going away,” says Milazzo. “It’s just changing form.”

Third Time’s the Charm will be open from 4 to 9 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays, from noon to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays, and from noon to 9 p.m. on Sundays.

Michael Harlan Turkell is a food photographer, writer, and cookbook author. He most recently hosted the Modernist Pizza Podcast, and continues to explore the art, history, and science of many foodways. Follow him on Instagram and X. Follow Resy, too.