Is it just me, or are we seeing a bit of a pizza renaissance?
And I don’t necessarily mean the American style with its soft deep pan and heavy toppings. We’ve got more traditional style pizza places popping up all over, from Altrincham and Honest Crust, to Wine & Pizza in Heaton Moor.
Recently Crazy Pedro’s came to town. Originally intended as a pop-up, it’s proved so popular that this part time pizza parlour looks like it’s here to stay. It’s easy to see why – firstly it’s open from 12pm til 4am. Seriously – so if you’re suffering from lunch time grumbly tummy, or late night had-a-lot-to-drink-now-I’m-starving tummy, you’re sorted. Eat in or take away. Your choice.
Secondly, it straddles that gap between Italian base and off the wall topping. It’s fired in an electric oven (does that make it ‘electricked’?) the base is thin, crisp and made with proper pizza flour. Not an overly doughy deep pan in sight. But, as you’ll see a lot of the toppings are far from traditional.
As I arrived, fresh from a late night/early morning without coffee (I know I forgot to buy any) I was greeted by a heavy cup full of the good stuff and, even better a slice of this:
All day breakfast. Tomato topped with cheese, then scrambled egg, bacon, mozzarella and brown sauce. Serious hangover fodder.
We were barely started. As I felt the caffeine begin to hit my system, pizzas number two and three popped out of the oven. First up the fried chicken and waffle.
No, I’m not kidding.
Fried chicken, smoked bacon, maple syrup and waffle, all atop that same crisp base. All I needed was coffee – oh wait…
Then there was what was about to become a personal favourite:
The Lucha Libre – no I don’t like it just because it mentioned the Jack Black film (though I still have a crush on him), it’s a margherita pizza with nachos, sour cream, guacamole and salsa. It’s three of my favourite things in one. The guacamole and the salsa are both made fresh on site, and you can tell. Though the guac is smooth, it’s fresh tasting, creamy and it’s obvious that the tomato in the salsa is freshly prepped – none of this jarred stuff.
With all those delicious carbs running through my system along with the coffee, I was almost on a sugar high, so of course this called for a cocktail.
Strawberry Margarita with popping candy? Or perhaps this beast?
The Mexican Headhunter. A special incorporating the house mix of ten different kinds of tequila. A little something to tide you over. With nibbles included.
Of course this was the perfect time to get us all behind the bar working on our own pizzas. System reeling a little from the hits of caffeine sugar and booze, I happily watched chef Enrico demonstrate for us first.
The quality of the dough is visible. It’s silky, slowly risen and made fresh. After proving the dough is ready to turn into pizzas. You can see how excited it is, just from the bubbles formed during the proving process.
Giddy things. Enrico shapes the dough – firstly using his fingers to form the outer crust and press the air out of the dough. Then using a movement that can only be described as a sort of swimming motion, he stretches it to form the thin base.
Then come the toppings, house tomato sauce – also made freshly on site, and in this case, it was topped with cheese, German frankfurters, crispy onions, mustard and ketchup.
All I needed was a little sauerkraut and I would have found a way to sneak it into my handbag – never mind that the pizza is 16 inches – I would have found a way. Trust me.
All too soon it was my turn. Thankfully no images exist of my failed dough wrangling, though miraculously it did end up the right size for the mesh tray. And what did I choose to top this dough masterpiece with?
Cheese. All the cheese. Mozzarella, Swiss, blue, topped with crispy onions and black pepper.
Plain and simple I know, but with that base, it was perfect.
So, I hear you cry, the price for these cocktails and these 16 inch pizzas must be high, it’s a city centre venue. They’re cashing in on the wobbly late night drinkers and tempting the office workers nearby. And it’s all made fresh – no tins and jars and frozen bases, right?
A slice of pizza is £2.50 – and believe me when I say that’s plenty – three slices for me and I was about ready for an afternoon nap. But, if you have a healthier appetite, then a full pizza comes in at £14. And the cocktails are the princely sum of £7.
Throw in happy hour and you could be going home happily full of both for a bargain price.
I don’t mind admitting, I’m a little bit hooked.
The food and drink enjoyed on this visit were provided for free by Crazy Pedro’s.
As ever, a meal supplied, doesn’t ensure a positive review. However, Crazy Pedro’s is really rather good and though the cocktails may be a little sugar heavy for me, their Margaritas are perfect.
I also now writing this have a dreadful pizza craving.