Thursday 11 September 2008

Encore pizza, mais a Londres maintenant

Here I was, all ready to give you a scoop: stunningly good, phenomenally cheap pizza from a place which happens to be just a 5 minute walk from my London home. But I let a nap, a movie and work get in the way, and Time Out London beat me to it, crowning Franco Manca as the city's best cheap eats.

There's not much more to say about the puffy, perfectly charred sourdough crust or the mozzarella with its slight lactic tang. Let me tell you what they didn't. The host-cum owner-cum sometimes waiter is effusive and excitable, the pizza makers are sweaty, shouting and lightening-fast, and the red wine is not only eminently drinkable but likely the best value in town at £1.20 a glass. They have the most concise pizza menu I've seen, with only 6 choices, and not a bad one among then. And it's smaller than your living room, with lingering discouraged.

Time Out made much of the fact that it's incongruous to find an authentic pizzeria in the midst of the mangoes, pigs' trotters and cheap shoes of Brixton's covered market. But while it's true that the neighborhood's vibe is more West Indian than Mediterranean, the energy, noise and vivid street life make it not totally dissimilar to southern Italian cities, where life seems to be lived on the sidewalk.

Before you get chased out of your seat, order a very serviceable expresso (with excellent pedigree), listen to the sing-song Italian banter and start to count down the days until they open their promised bakery. Dessert will, from about 2010 or so, be a cannoli, available just across the way. For the moment, however, the mangoes are 3 to the pound and not bad at all.

1 comment:

Kinneret R said...

Dear petit pois, I can't find the "write me" button anywhere.

I would like to ask you (suggest maybe) something about writing.

could you please not publish this comment, but do send me your e-mail address?

I am at kinneret point rosenbloom at gmail etc.

thanks,

K.R.