Hot enough to notice, not hot enough to hide the pizza
Diavola
Spicy soft salami and chilli over tomato and fior di latte, on the Neapolitan base.
The salami on a diavola is not pepperoni. It is a softer, coarser, more strongly spiced sausage that does not cup or crisp — in ninety seconds it barely has time to warm through, and what it does instead is release a good deal of paprika-red fat into the cheese underneath it.
The heat is deliberate and it is bounded. There is chilli in the salami and a little more scattered on top, and it should read as warmth building over a few mouthfuls rather than as a challenge. A pizza hot enough to be a talking point is a pizza you have stopped tasting, and there is no version of this we make that way.
If you want more, there is chilli oil on the counter and you are welcome to it. We would just rather you added it than we did.
What goes on it
The salami
Soft spicy salami, sliced thicker than pepperoni, laid on before the bake.
The tomato
The same uncooked crushed plum tomato as the margherita.
The cheese
Fior di latte, torn and placed in patches.
The finish
A pinch of chilli flakes and olive oil as it comes out.
How it is made here
Salami on before
Unlike a cured ham, this wants the heat — ninety seconds is just enough to soften it and render some fat.
Cheese in patches
Same as the margherita. A full blanket would trap the salami's fat and make it greasy.
Ninety seconds
On the brick floor, turned twice.
Chilli after
So it perfumes rather than scorches. Chilli flakes in a 900°F oven go acrid in about ten seconds.
Diavola — what it costs
- 12" pie$25
Prices include every topping listed above. Extras are $3 for vegetables and $4 for meats. Prices change when our costs do; the menu here is the menu in the shop.
Before you order this
A shared flour kitchen, and what that rules out. Our kitchen handles wheat flour in open air all day, along with milk, eggs, soy, tree nuts and fish. Flour becomes airborne every time a dough ball is opened, and it settles on every surface in the room, including the peels, the oven floor, the cutting board and the wheel. We can tell you what we put on a pizza, and we will tell you honestly. We cannot tell you that anything leaving this kitchen is free of an allergen, and we will not say it. If a reaction would send you to hospital, this is not a safe kitchen for you, and we would far rather say so than take the order.
The kitchen is one room. Every pizza here is opened on the same bench, baked on the same floor and cut with the same wheel, and that is true of this one as much as any other. The pages on allergens and cross-contact and vegetarian, vegan and dietary questions set out plainly what we can and cannot tell you, including the things most shops leave you to assume.
The rest of the menu
Other things worth ordering
Margherita
The Neapolitan build: a puffed, leopard-spotted rim, fior di latte in patches rather than a blanket, basil and a thread of olive oil.
From $22
Marinara
No cheese, and none missing: crushed tomato, sliced garlic, dried oregano and olive oil on a blistered Neapolitan base.
From $18
Prosciutto & Arugula
A margherita that leaves the oven and is then covered in dry-cured ham, a handful of rocket and shavings of hard sheep's cheese.
From $27Asked at the counter
Diavola — questions
How hot is it, honestly?
Warm rather than hot. Most people who ask for something spicy find this about right; people who eat a lot of chilli usually want the chilli oil as well, and it is on the counter.
Can you make it milder?
We can leave the extra chilli flakes off, but the salami itself is spiced and we cannot change that. If that is too much, the margherita with pepperoni is the closer option.
Is the salami pork?
Yes. This is not a halal kitchen and we hold no certification — the dietary page sets out what we can and cannot tell you.
Twelve to fifteen minutes, and worth the wait
Order a pie
Telephone the shop and we will tell you honestly how long the kitchen is running before you commit to anything. Collection is always quicker than delivery and the pizza is always better for it. If you are ordering for a crowd, the catering page has the trays and the notice we need.