The cups matter more than the pepperoni
Pepperoni Pizza
Small-diameter natural-casing pepperoni that curls into deep cups, chars at the rim and pools a little red oil in the middle of each one.
Most pepperoni lies flat and stays flat. The kind that curls is cut from a smaller-diameter stick in a natural casing, and it curls because the casing shrinks in the heat faster than the meat does. The edges lift, the middle sinks, the fat renders into the cup and the rim goes crisp and slightly bitter. That bitterness against the sweet sauce is the whole point.
We put it under the cheese on half the pie and on top for the other half if you ask, but on top is where it belongs: buried under mozzarella it steams instead of crisping and you have simply paid four dollars for warm salami.
It is the most ordered slice in the shop by a distance, which means it is also the slice most likely to have been sitting on the rack for ten minutes. Ask Danny. He will tell you.
What goes on it
The pepperoni
Natural-casing, roughly an inch across, cut a shade thicker than deli-thin so it has enough body to form a cup rather than a crisp.
The base
The same plain pie underneath — 48-hour dough, uncooked crushed tomato, whole-milk mozzarella.
The coverage
Around forty slices on an 18-inch pie, spaced so they do not overlap. Overlapped pepperoni does not cup, it welds.
The finish
A grind of black pepper. Nothing else — the pepperoni brings enough fat and salt of its own.
How it is made here
Laid on last
Straight onto the cheese, evenly spaced, one at a time. It takes forty seconds longer than throwing a handful at it and it is the difference between cups and a raft.
Baked hot
Twelve to fourteen minutes at 600°F. The cups form in the last four.
Rested one minute
Straight out of the oven the oil in the cups is at frying temperature. A minute on the rack is not us being slow.
Cut and served
Eight slices. The oil that pools in the cups will run when you tilt it, and that is correct.
Pepperoni Pizza — what it costs
- 18" pie$28
- 14" pie$22
- By the slice$4.50
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
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.
From $3.75
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.
From $4.25
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.
From $4.25Asked at the counter
Pepperoni Pizza — questions
Can I have extra pepperoni?
Yes, $4 a pie. Past about fifty slices on an 18-inch they start to overlap and stop cupping, so that is where we stop — we will tell you rather than take the money and make a worse pizza.
Is the pepperoni spicy?
Mildly. It has paprika and a little cayenne and most people would call it warm rather than hot. If you want actual heat, ask for chilli oil or look at the diavola.
Is the pepperoni halal?
No. It is pork, and this is not a halal kitchen — see our dietary page for what we are and are not able to 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.