SARATOGA SPRINGS — Watch out dough boy and dough girl, rumor has it your delicious dough cousin is in town.

Esperanto pizza at 6 ½ Caroline Street has been cooking up its signature dough boy — a tasty roll of fresh baked dough stuffed with sautéed spiced chicken, three kinds of cheeses and scallions — since 1994, when the place was still known as Sidelines Pizza.

Since its birth, the dough boy has become a staple snack in Saratoga Springs and across the Capital District. In fact, the boy even made its way into the recent WMHT-TV documentary, “Our Town Saratoga Springs,” as one of the things that residents feel makes Saratoga unique.

After dough boy cornered the market for not-pizza-but-still-satisfying late night snack, the dough girl came along 11 years later in 2005.

The girl, a vegetarian alternative, is full of roasted vegetables — olives, carrots, celery, onions, mushrooms — and the same three cheeses and scallions as the dough boy.

Six years later, on August 24, 2011, the dough cousin joined the Esperanto family.

“We’re trying to experiment with new types of dough boys; it’s our biggest seller so it makes sense to try different things,” said Esperanto Manager Joshua Bebb. “It’s our biggest season in the summer so we figured we’d give it  a shot."

If the dough cousin is well received, Bebb said he would likely mix up the ingredients every month or so to keep the dough cousin fresh and exciting.

Right now, the cousin is wrapped around spinach, onion, roasted red pepper, feta cheese and mozzarella.
“The cousin isn’t really the mother or father of the dough boy,” Bebb said about how he chose the name of the new dough boy. “They’re just cousins, it’s more like extended family.”

All three dough boy versions cost $3.50. For takeout or pickup orders call 587-4236.