With lower barriers to entry, pizza in pubs makes sense, and can be a less risky way to try out a concept. At Dough Hands, for example, the pub takes 15% of revenue. Ace Pizza, which for years has operated from the Pembury Tavern in Hackney and describes its pizzas as “chewy and charred” (buzzwords of the new-gen pizza), recently launched its first standalone site near Victoria Park.
Lewis, who runs Lenny’s Apizza from the Bedford Tavern in north London, also started making pizza after watching Portnoy’s videos. He fell in love with New Haven-style, where coal-fired pizzas are almost black underneath, large and sliced in an idiosyncratic, haphazard fashion. “It felt like something I wanted to eat and couldn’t find anywhere else,” he says, describing his pizzas as “crispy, chewy and charred.”
Toppings in New Haven are often simple – Lewis’s tomato pie is a standout – and the pizzas, served on large metal trays atop a white baking sheet, encourage sharing. Lewis describes New Haven’s pizza scene as “a communal experience”, and perhaps that’s partly why they are resonating so much with younger, cash-strapped audiences. The pizzas tend to be reasonably priced (starting at £12 at Dough Hands, £12.50 for 14-inch pizzas at Lenny’s), and sharing a few pizzas between a group in a pub is far more affordable than dining at a restaurant (I’ve eaten at Lenny’s for less than a tenner).
Dough Hands founder Hannah Drye
Lewis considered a van or market stall before a New Haven pizza maker who’d come across his Instagram suggested a pub where the New Haven Gooners, an Arsenal supporter group, would visit. Coincidentally, Lewis lived near the Bedford Tavern, met the landlord and, by early 2024, was running the kitchen. “I think the marriage between this style of pizza and a pub is a really good one,” says Lewis, pointing to their size (14 inches) and crispiness (no cutlery needed).
Gerry del Guercio, one half of Instagram page Bite Twice Food Reviews, which launched pizza reviews in lockdown and has since expanded to all sorts of foods, agrees pizza belongs in pubs. “Nothing beats an ice cold beer with pizza.” Bite Twice also emerged from lockdown, when del Guercio and Paul Delany began posting reviews of pizzerias like Vincenzo’s and Crisp. They saw a new kind of pizza emerging, which del Guercio calls “London style”. Borrowing elements from the East Coast (thin and crisp) and Naples (high quality toppings, sometimes puffier crusts), many new-gen pizzerias are eschewing traditional categorisation. Crisp calls itself “not New York, not Italian” and Sebastian Vince, owner of Breadstall, describes his pies as “London pizza”.