What we are, and what we are not entitled to claim
Vegetarian, vegan and dietary
The dough is vegan, a good deal of the menu has no meat on it, and this is neither a halal nor a kosher kitchen. All three of those need explaining properly.
The good news first
A New York pizza dough is one of the more accidentally vegan things in a western kitchen. Flour, water, salt, yeast and a little olive oil is the whole recipe, and it has been for a century — there is no dairy in it, no egg, no honey and no sugar. Our New York, Sicilian, grandma, Roman and Neapolitan doughs are all like this.
So a vegan pizza here is not a compromise base with something strange about it. It is the same forty-eight hour dough everybody else in the room is eating, with a plant-based cheese instead of mozzarella. The two exceptions are the enriched doughs — the hero rolls and the zeppole — and any roll whose crust is egg-washed for colour.
A little over half this menu contains no meat as it is built. What follows is the part most restaurant websites leave out.
Neither halal nor kosher, and one wheel cuts everything. We are not a halal kitchen and we are not a kosher kitchen; we hold no certification for either and we will not imply one. Our vegetarian pizzas are made on the same benches and cut with the same wheel as the meat ones. Our dairy-free pizzas share an oven floor with cheese.
None of that is an apology. It is what a single-room neighbourhood pizzeria is, and you are entitled to know it before you order rather than to find out afterwards.
No meat as built
The vegetarian side of the menu
Every one of these is made without meat. Every one of them is also opened on a shared bench and cut with a shared wheel, which is why the marker on each menu page is a link to this page rather than a badge that ends the conversation.
New York Cheese Pizza
The plain pie the whole shop is judged on: a thin, foldable base, a thin bright sauce and low-moisture mozzarella browned in patches.
Sicilian Square Pizza
A thick square pie proofed in an oiled steel pan: an airy open crumb, a fried golden base and a crisp cheese edge.
Grandma Pizza
Thin, square and pressed straight into the pan: mozzarella first, then stripes of crushed tomato spooned over the top with sliced garlic and oregano.
Upside-Down Sicilian
The old Brooklyn order: cheese laid on the dough and a thick blanket of crushed tomato over the top, so the tomato stays bright and the cheese never dries out.
White Pizza
No tomato at all: mozzarella, dollops of whole-milk ricotta, sliced garlic, olive oil, black pepper and oregano.
Vodka Pizza
A pink tomato-cream sauce cooked down with a splash of vodka, with mozzarella, ricotta and basil torn over the top.
Garden Vegetable Pizza
Roasted peppers, red onion, mushroom, black olive, wilted spinach and cherry tomato — roasted first, so nothing steams the crust.
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.
Marinara
No cheese, and none missing: crushed tomato, sliced garlic, dried oregano and olive oil on a blistered Neapolitan base.
Also without meat: Roman Al Taglio, Spinach Roll, Broccoli & Garlic Roll, Garlic Knots, Gluten-Free Crust, Vegan Pizza, Whole Wheat Crust, Salads, Cannoli & Zeppole.
Halal and kosher
We are neither, and there is no version of this answer with a “but” in it. There is no certification, no supervision and no separation. We handle pork every day on the same benches, and a pizza with meat and cheese on it settles the kosher question on its own.
Some individual dishes here contain no pork, and if that is genuinely all you need then you are welcome to ask which ones. If you observe halal or kashrut properly, this is not a kitchen that can serve you, and we would rather say so clearly than let a menu description do the implying.
Two small things worth knowing
The hard grating cheese is not vegetarian
The aged hard cheeses we use are made with animal rennet. It goes on at the end, so it is the easiest thing on the menu to leave off — just say so.
The egg wash is on the crust, not in the filling
Every roll, stromboli and calzone has an egg wash brushed on for colour. The filling of a spinach or broccoli roll has no egg in it; the outside does.
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.
Asked at the counter
Dietary questions
Is your food halal?
No. We hold no halal certification, we handle pork all day, and the same benches, ovens and cutting wheel are used for everything. Some individual dishes contain no pork; that is not the same thing as halal and we will not present it as though it were.
Is your food kosher?
No. We hold no kosher certification and there is no supervision of any kind here. We also serve meat and dairy together on the same pizza, which settles it.
Which pizzas are vegetarian?
As built: the cheese, Sicilian, grandma, upside-down, white, vodka, garden vegetable, margherita, marinara, Roman, gluten-free base, vegan, wholewheat, spinach roll, broccoli roll, garlic knots and the salads. Every one of them is opened on a bench that has had salami on it and cut with the wheel that cut the last pepperoni pie.
Is the hard grating cheese vegetarian?
No. The aged hard cheeses we use are made with animal rennet, which is true of most of them. Ask for it to be left off and we will — it goes on at the end, so this one is easy.
Is the dough vegan?
Yes. Flour, water, salt, yeast and olive oil, with no dairy, egg, honey or sugar. That is true of the New York, Sicilian, grandma, Roman and Neapolitan doughs. It is not true of the hero rolls or the zeppole, which are enriched, or of any roll with an egg wash on the crust.
Can you cook a vegan pizza separately?
We will use a clean board and fresh gloves. We cannot use a different oven, because there is not one, and the floor it bakes on has had cheese on it all day. If that rules us out for you, we understand.
Do you have anything for somebody avoiding dairy entirely?
The marinara is built to have no cheese rather than to be missing it, and it is genuinely good. The vegan pizza with plant-based cheese is the other option. Both are baked on the shared floor.
It is quicker to ask than to guess
Tell us what you need
Say it when you order rather than when you collect. Leaving the hard cheese off, using a clean board and fresh gloves, or swapping to the plant-based cheese are all easy if we know at the start and awkward if we find out at the end.