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Dolo’s Pizza is Underground Atlanta’s Hidden Gem of Pizza Reimagined

THE ATLANTA VOICE — From ripe plantains and juicy jerk chicken topped on pizzas to charcoal pesto spread on dough and sprinkled with a bit of “magic,” co-founders Yusef Walker and Alyson Williams are creating a slice of pizza heaven.

Published

5 months ago

October 14, 2025

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By Laura Nwogo
The Atlanta Voice

Underground Atlanta is experiencing a revitalization, and feeding that resurgence is Dolo’s Pizza, a hidden gem tucked away on the second floor of the historical landmark. Caribbean flavors meet NYC-style pizza in a dimly-lit pizzeria where creativity and experimentation flow freely. From ripe plantains and juicy jerk chicken topped on pizzas to charcoal pesto spread on dough and sprinkled with a bit of “magic,” co-founders Yusef Walker and Alyson Williams are creating a slice of pizza heaven.

The concept of Dolo’s began to form during the COVID-19 pandemic. Walker had been strolling around his downtown neighborhood when he came across a vacant pizzeria. The Queens, New York, native was no stranger to the delights of pizza and was certainly not new to the restaurant business; along with his brother, Walker opened Negril ATL and Ms. Icey’s Kitchen and Bar. However, the uncertainty of the restaurant industry during the pandemic helped the restaurateur and chef realize that he wanted to venture out and start his own project.

Photo by Tabius McCoy/The Atlanta Voice

Walker knew he wanted to create a concept that was mainly takeout, and that vacant pizzeria sparked an idea within him. After receiving advice from his family, Walker didn’t have to search hard for a partner to tackle this new venture with. He instantly recognized Williams — who had been his neighbor, worked with Walker at Negril, and also had experience working in every part of a restaurant — as the best candidate.

As an Atlanta native, Williams knew the city and its food scene in and out. Paired with what Walker called “unconventional ideas” when it came to a restaurant growth concept, the friends-turned-business partners began to do pop-ups around the city and metro area. When a vendor program for The Underground launched in 2022, offering six months of free rent, they decided to set up shop, which led to a permanent restaurant later that year. Nearly five years later, the friends-turned-business partners are slinging dough for all of Atlanta.

“Being from New York, pizzas were the thing that resonated, and I was inspired by the pizzerias there,” Walker said. “We didn’t necessarily know what we were doing, but we had an idea of what we wanted to do. We just shook hands and said we’re going to figure this out together. We’ve been figuring out how since then.”

Dolo’s Pizza (above) infuses Caribbean flavors into its recipes, creating unique pies. Photo by Tabius McCoy The Atlanta Voice

Williams added that although there was a learning curve in starting a business, the journey has been a fun experience.

“Pizza is such a fun dish. Everybody loves pizza. You can get as creative as you want with it. I think that’s good for someone creative like Yusef, and you can expand on it. It’s yours; you can do whatever you want with it. We can decide to make taco pizzas tomorrow, so that’s the beauty of it,” Williams said. “It feels super accomplishing to see something come to fruition that started out of nothing. It’s super exciting.”

During the early stages of menu curation, Williams was the main taste tester of the recipes they’d cook up; Walker was a strict vegetarian. The first set of pizzas included a Chorizo creation, a garlic crema pizza with goat cheese and balsamic drizzle called Blanco, and the OG — a simple pie with marinara and mozzarella. Initially, Walker had no intention of infusing his Caribbean culture into the food. But paying homage to his parents’ Jamaican roots was something that came naturally to him, and it quickly shone through with pizzas such as the Matey with jerk chicken and honey; the Hot & Sweet topped with plantains and jalapenos; and the Black Pizza, a black pesto creation which has a recipe breakdown printed on a t-shirt hanging from the ceiling. Through it all, customers are served a pizza dough that’s light, crispy, and the perfect carriage for their inspired recipes.

Dolo’s Pizza (above) infuses Caribbean flavors into its recipes, creating unique pies. Photo by Tabius McCoy The Atlanta Voice

The pizzeria began as a pop-up that bloomed into a storefront at Underground Atlanta.

“I never really intended to put a Caribbean spin on it. I just think I can’t help it. But really, I wanted to recreate the New York essence of pizza. So in anything we make, we try to keep it pizza at its core,” Walker said. “I think some people try to do too much. I did want it to be structurally sound. I like technical things, so we have a very technical dough. That feeds that part of my soul where I get to interact with puzzles and figure things out and that.”

Everything about the way the pizzeria is set up is intentional, from the size of the pizzas and the limited seating to the fact that they don’t sell slices. They wanted to be able to continue doing popups and also make sure they had a business plan that was “pandemic-proof;” if anything significant were to happen in the world today, they wanted to know they would still be able to sell takeout pizza.

“We don’t have huge ovens. As a traveling pizzeria, it’s extremely hard to travel with a huge oven. So, everything had to be personal. Everything about this pizza, and when people get it, is very personal. Everyone’s name goes on their box. I ask everyone how to spell their name, because this is a very personal pizza to you. It’s what you asked for. That’s very important to me, and I appreciate the personality and personal touch of the pizza. So, that has a lot to do with shaping the size and the menu,” Williams shared.

The duo said that, in the future, they hope to add a few more things to the menu and also expand above-ground into a larger and more exposed space that will give them greater visibility to customers. Walker and Williams have created a formula that’s unique to them, and despite the name of the restaurant, they’re doing it together. With every pie, they’re melding Caribbean, New York, and Atlanta culture into one.

“Dolo’s is special because of the creativity, the uniqueness, and its consistency. This pizza tastes like this every single day. It looks like this. I don’t know of any other places in Atlanta that are doing this with pizza,” Williams said. “It’s a New York-style pizza, but I like to say it’s like a New York, Atlanta-style pizza.”

Photo by Tabius McCoy/The Atlanta Voice

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Poll Shows Support for Policies That Help Families Afford Child Care

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

Published

4 days ago

March 2, 2026

Oakland Post

By First Five Years Fund

New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

The national survey was conducted by UpOne Insight on behalf of the First Five Years Fund from January 13–18, 2026.

Key findings include:

• Parents need help: 80% of voters say the ability of working parents to find and afford child care is either in a state of crisis or a major problem.

• This is an affordability issue: 82% believe federal child care funding will help lower costs for working families — including 69% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 94% of Democrats.

• And there continues to be strong support (62%) for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal program that makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of families to afford safe, quality care for their children while parents work or go to school, including a majority of Republicans, 63% of Independents and 72% of Democrats.

• Support for funding child care programs remains strong: 75% believe child care funding should be increased or kept at current levels — including 75% of Republicans, 85% of Independents, and 97% of Democrats.

• 74% say funding for child care is an important and good use of tax dollars, including a majority of Republicans, three-quarters of Independents, and nine in ten Democrats.

FFYF Executive Director Sarah Rittling said, “Voters across the country are sending a clear message: federal child care and early learning programs work. These investments help parents stay in the workforce, strengthen families, and support healthy child development. They have also long had strong bipartisan support in Congress. At a time when affordability is top of mind for families, continued federal funding is essential to ensure child care remains accessible and within reach.”

First Five Years Fund works to protect, prioritize, and build bipartisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level. Reliable, affordable, and high-quality early learning and child care can be transformative, not only enhancing a child’s prospects for a brighter future but also bolstering working parents and fostering economic stability nationwide.

We work with Congress and the Administration to identify federal solutions that work for families with young children, as well as states and communities. We work with policymakers to identify ways to increase access to affordable, high-quality child care and early learning programs for children. And we collaborate with advocacy groups to help align best practices with the best possible policies. http://www.ffyf.org

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Trump’s MAGA Allies are Creating Executive Order Plan to Steal the 2026 Midterms

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

Published

1 week ago

February 27, 2026

Oakland Post

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

A group of MAGA pro-Trump activists, who say they are working in coordination with the White House, are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that would claim without evidence that China interfered with the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential to President Joe Biden by over 7 million votes. Since Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he has repeatedly claimed that the election was “stolen” without evidence. The report of a group of “Trump allies” preparing an executive order to give Trump power over elections was first reported by The Washington Post.

The lies around the right-wing campaign that pushed falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen was trafficked through right-wing media, particularly Fox News. Fox News was then sued for defamation for the claims by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox lost the case and had to settle for the largest defamation amount on record of $787.5 million in April 2023.

The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

The story in The Washington Post arrives as Trump increasingly signals that he may take actions that would alter the result of the 2026 midterms. The Republicans are widely expected to lose as their approval ratings plummet as a result of a failing economy under Trump. Over 50 members of Congress have announced they will retire this year and not return in 2027.

The Trump Department of Justice, which now has a large image of Trump on the side of it, “sued five new states Thursday [Feb. 26, 2026] demanding access to their unredacted voter rolls — escalating a campaign that has been rejected by multiple federal courts and faces resistance from Republican-led states as well,” according to Democracy Docket, a group that works to protect voting rights.

Trump claimed back in late 2020, the last year of his first term, that he had the authority to issue an executive order related to mail-in voting for the 2020 elections — which he would then lose. But the Constitution states that control of elections lies with the states. As the GOP works to place hurdles in front of voting, Democrats worked to make voting easier.

In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to expand voting access as part of the Biden Administration’s effort “to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.”

Trump’s focus is clearly on altering the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s polling numbers and the elections and special elections that have taken place around the U.S. over the last year clearly indicate that Republicans are about to be hit by a blue wave of Democratic victories.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the founder of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and hosts the show LAUREN LIVE on YouTube @LaurenVictoriaBurke. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke

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PRESS ROOM: NBA Hall of Fame Nominee Terry Cummings Joins 100 Black Men of DeKalb County to Launch Victory & Values Initiative

NNPA NEWSWIRE — NBA Hall of Fame nominee and Basketball Legend Terry Cummings was administered the official member’s oath and ceremonially pinned during a special induction ceremony held on Friday, February 20th.

Published

1 week ago

February 27, 2026

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Cummings becomes an honorary member, joining other role model sports stars

NBA Hall of Fame nominee and Basketball Legend Terry Cummings has officially become an honorary member of the 100 Black Men of DeKalb County, marking a powerful new chapter for the 100 Black Men and youth development across the region.

Cummings was administered the official member’s oath and ceremonially pinned during a special induction ceremony held on Friday, February 20th. The moment signified more than membership — it marked the launch of the organization’s transformative new platform, the Victory & Values Initiative.

The Victory & Values Initiative is a groundbreaking youth development program designed to empower elementary and middle school students through a dynamic blend of sports, mentorship, and STEM exposure. The initiative focuses on building health, discipline, character, leadership, and access to opportunity — creating pathways for long-term academic and personal success.

“This is about more than sports,” said Cummings during the ceremony. “It’s about using the platform of athletics to teach life lessons, create access, and build the next generation of leaders.”

The induction ceremony also featured notable guests including NASCAR’s newest Star Driver, Lavar Scott and NASCAR Director of Athletic Performance, Phil Horton, who joined Cummings for a powerful Victory & Values Town Hall discussion. The Town Hall was moderated by renowned Sports Emcee John Hollins and focused on leadership, resilience, discipline, and the importance of mentorship in shaping young lives.

A “Day at NASCAR” for 75+ Youth

Cummings wasted no time getting to work. On his first full day as an honorary member, he joined his new brothers of the 100 Black Men of DeKalb County to host a “Day at NASCAR,” escorting more than 75 youth to a once-in-a-lifetime experience at EchoPark Motor Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway).

The youth participants received behind-the-scenes access including: an exclusive tour of Pit Row, access to the Garage Area and exploration of the interactive Fan Zone.

The experience culminated with a surprise meet-and-greet and Q&A session with NASCAR Superstar Bubba Wallace, who shared insights on perseverance, preparation, and breaking barriers in professional sports.

The day served as a living example of the ‘Victory & Values’ Initiative in action — exposing youth to new industries, expanding their vision for the future, and connecting them directly with high- level mentors and role models.

Building Leaders Through Access and Mentorship

The 100 Black Men of DeKalb County – a chapter of the largest, national mentoring organization in the county – continues to expand its footprint with programs focused on academic excellence, economic empowerment, leadership development, and health & wellness.

The launch of ‘Victory & Values’ represents a strategic expansion of the organization’s impact

intentionally integrating athletics and STEM to engage youth at an early age while reinforcing core principles such as integrity, accountability, teamwork, and perseverance.

“Our mission has always been to mentor the next generation,” said Vaughn Irons, President-Elect of the 100 Black Men of DeKalb County. “With Terry Cummings joining the brotherhood, along with partners in NASCAR and professional sports, we are creating unprecedented access and exposure for our youth. Victory & Values is about turning inspiration into structured opportunity.”

By connecting elementary and middle school students to professional athletes, executives, STEM professionals, and community leaders, the initiative aims to:

Increase youth exposure to careers in sports business, engineering, and performance science
Strengthen mentorship pipelines
Promote physical wellness and mental resilience
Build character-driven leadership at an early age

Open Invitation to Youth and Families

All youth are invited to participate in the Victory & Values Initiative, along with the other countless, impactful programs offered by the 100 Black Men of DeKalb County.

Parents and guardians seeking mentorship, leadership development, academic enrichment, and transformative exposure opportunities for their children are encouraged to connect with the organization.

As NBA Legend Terry Cummings’ induction demonstrates, Victory & Values is more than a program — it is a movement designed to build champions in life, not just in sports.

For more information about the Victory & Values Initiative or to enroll a student, contact: 100 Black Men of DeKalb County at Phone at 404.241.1338, info@100bmod.org or Tee Foxx at 404.791.6525,