Starting Up with Vince Hanley @ Jamie's Pizzeria

Last week we opened the doors of our new Pizzeria, tucked away in a cosy spot downstairs at Jamie’s Italian on George Street.

When we opened Jamie’s Italian six years ago we decided not to put pizza on the menu. We already had lots to focus on and we were determined make sure that everything we offered was the absolute best it could be – from our authentic antipasti, fresh pasta and impeccably sourced meat and fish.

We were conscious that there was already a lot going on and as our homemade pasta quickly became the star of the show, it didn’t seem the right time to introduce pizza – it just wouldn’t have got the attention and focus such a classic dish deserves to make it brilliant.

Over the last couple of years, behind the scenes we’ve been playing around with different types of dough, trying to create something really crispy, light and tasty. Jamie got really excited about what was being produced and we started to think that the time was right and maybe we could actually open something pretty special.

We think our pizzas are a really good price – all between £8 and £9.

They’re cooked to order and we haven’t compromised on anything. We’re using really high quality produce just like we do upstairs in the main restaurant – Levoni cured meats which truly is some of the best around (the fennel salami is immense!) and of course Jamie’s favourite cheese – Westcombe Cheddar.

He makes sure that stuff makes its way on to every menu but none of us are complaining. It’s pure quality, absolutely delicious and fits in perfectly with the big, flavours and fresh ingredients of our oven-baked pizzas.

Of course all of our produce is high welfare and sustainable, something that is hugely important to us.

In a lot of ways we’ve been very lucky in opening the pizzeria.

Because we’re working within our own restaurant space there hasn’t really been the usual little panics about handover, fit out, recruitment etc. It’s definitely been more relaxed than when we opened Jamie’s Italian six years ago. We’ve still had challenges of course, like getting a huge pizza oven through the front door which proved interesting.

One thing that’s really important to us and that we’re going to be consistently working on is keeping the pizza to plate time to a minimum.

We believe it’s crucial that our pizzas are made to order but also that all of our guests are served really quickly. We’re obviously happy if people choose to stay with us for the evening and have a few drinks but we know we’ll be a bit of a pit stop too – a quick work lunch, a treat on the way home from school, a bite to eat before a big night out.

We’re really excited about the Pizzeria. It’s a project we’ve all worked hard on to get just right and now we’re all confident that we’ve created a really nice little restaurant serving up some fantastic pizzas.

It’s the perfect alternative to Jamie’s Italian and we hope we’ll be seeing lots of faces through the door in the coming weeks.

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