Bruno Pizza isn't just one of the city's newest pizzeria, it may also be one of its most ambitious. Chefs Justin Slojkowski and Dave Gulino, along with owner Demian Repucci, spent months developing the right recipe for their 00 pizza flour, using their own mill to grind the whole wheat berries to their specifications. Then there's the toppings, where even their classic Margherita uses a blend of organic canned and fermented tomatoes. What else? A tasting menu will roll out in the coming months, and they've adopted a trendy no-tipping policy—but we'll get to that later.
It's familiar territory for Slojkowski and Gulino, who most recently headed up the much-lauded Box Kite tasting menu pop-up, and who met slinging pies at Roberta's. A chance encounter with Repucci during the former's tenure lead to the restaurant's origin story, which—as Repucci tells it—has meant years of culinary education and false starts. No bother, now the trio have created something that compliments the city's Neapolitan pizza craze while simultaneously turning it on its head.
Take that dough, for example, which finds the delicate balance between a crisp undercarriage and a pillowy, ever-so-slightly chewy top into which cheese and toppings ooze and settle. On the Country Ham ($16) that means improbable ingredients like roasted peaches and ham, which find harmony in a sweet-salty kick with the addition of cured onions. Just out of the oven, it's likely perfection, but finishing touches of smoked salt, cracked black pepper, grated cheese and especially fresh herbs like dill and parsley add a zesty, fresh zip that enlivens the richness of the pie.
Pizzas spend between 90 seconds and two minutes inside the oven, which reaches temperature around 750 degrees (Paul Quitoriano/Gothamist)
Having just opened last week, the restaurant is still offering a limited menu, but there are already some pasta and salad offerings, and likely more being added even as you read this. A recent Cavatappi dish ($18) employed bone marrow to add richness and a meaty heft to clams and collard greens, where the Bucatini ($16) embraced the season's bounty of corn, squash blossoms, scallions and squash. Even a seemingly traditional French opener of radishes with butter ($8) arrive in a Modernist scatter with pea greens and a compound butter made with gorgonzola. Offerings will change seasonally, of course.
Repucci didn't have details yet on the scope of the tasting menu, but said he was inspired by the chef's past ventures in interactive dining, which brought about the idea. "One of the great things about my experience meeting them at Box Kite was the place was so small and the chefs were right there. They didn't have any servers, so they just talked to the diners and I loved that interaction," he said. "I initially built that into the design of the restaurant just because that's the style I wanted to personally cultivate here. It fit with what they wanted to do perfectly."
"The whole restaurant will be kind of a hybrid, where there'll be walk-ins for pasta and pizza, and then there'll be tasting menu people," according to Repucci. "You can even come and have a drink, because the bar is part of the whole situation." For now, actually, the spot is the rare BYOB as they await their liquor license. Another unique feature of the restaurant is their tipping policy, which Repucci said was inspired by Amanda Cohen's similar efforts at Dirt Candy. Guests are charged a 20% Administration Fee in lieu of the subjective tipping agenda, a model catching fire in the industry.
204 East 13th Street, (212) 598-3080; website
