It’s day two, 10.57am, and my girlfriend is worried about my obsession with Big Brother. I’ve just had a slice of pizza for breakfast the size of a gardening trowel, sturdy based, so that when it’s folded it resembles a cold toastie filled with all the important breakfast parts: there’s sausage, bacon and pepperoni. There’s tomatoes, cheese and a big pot of buffalo sauce. And if you’ve never considered buffalo sauce as a breakfast sauce, you clearly have never had to make up an opening paragraph that factors in very large pizzas.
It took me two days to finish the food we left Pizzucci with. I think that’s a first for a review on here. I sometimes leave with doggy bags of bits and bobs to eat in bed, but never have I been defeated with 25% of the way in, loading the various boxes into the back of the car like a JustEat driver having a bad day. I started it from the second I sat on the stools of the black and white interior clad with neon phrasing, which some will call ‘instagrammable’ but I’ll have none of here. I started it when I eyed the slice of pepperoni and said I’ll have it with a frozen margarita whilst the food comes. I knew what I was getting myself in for when I choose my pizza to be 16” instead of the 11”.
Sixteen inches is massive by the way. So much so I probably need to re-measure my starting point that I oh-so-confidently doubled. The base is a quick ferment of half bread, half double-zero flours so that the dough is sturdy and NYC slice shop in style. Try this with an all sourdough base and you’ll be wearing it rather than eating it. Sure, it lacks the complexities of the pizza dough at their sister venue, Bosco, but this is good, hearty pizza. An 11” ‘hot boy’ has chillies, basil, red onion, hot honey, and a picture of me in my twenties, and disappears quicker than my cheekbones. A similar sized garlic bread is very good garlic bread and comes home minus one slice in the back of the car. All of the sauces are superb but especially the buffalo that will liven-up anything. Yes, even breakfast.
We order both of the arancini out of greed and a soft serve because we are told what to do. The arancini are big sturdy things sold in pairs like the Tuilagi brothers. I liked the cheesey one better than the beefy one, but both made excellent breakfasts the following day when nuked in the oven (don’t mess around with lukewarm rice). The soft serve is really excellent given I went for both the mascarpone and Nutella-style flavours, adding praline and fudge sauce to the party. Couldn’t take that home, nor the extra frozen margs, or the excellent negroni from king of the cans, Whitebox.
They’ll be those who won’t enjoy Pizzucci because Bristol is a city that takes its food very seriously and it’s not serious pizza for serious pizza aficionados who obsess over ferments and soupy centres and leopard spots on the underside that cause the soupy centres to pour out whilst looking for them. And then they’ll be those who like the fun of it all, and the quality toppings on a style of pizza not known for meticulous detail with provenance. I’m in the latter camp, and that has nothing to do with the margaritas or the food that fed me for days. Okay, it had a little bit to do with that.
8/10
Listen to The Meat and One Veg Podcast here.
