A red fiery phoenix welcomes us as we walk up the stairs to Fire Pizza located in Race Course. Just two weeks into its opening, this simplistic 1,000 sq ft restaurant has already created quite a buzz on social media, serving up 8-inch and 12-inch pizzas and pasta from 10 am till as late as 11 pm. Staying true to their theme of simplicty, that run through their decor and ambience, Veera Hariprasad, an IT professional in California, says he’s keeping focus on the basics — thin crust pizzas and creamy pastas. Set up to allow customers to pick and choose every ingredient on their pizza or pasta, Veera Hemaanand, who runs the joint, insists that people enjoy participating in the whole creation process. “Our wood-fired oven which is located near the dining area gives people a chance to watch their pizza baking live in front of them. They seem to love everything from the smell of the freshly-baked dough to the unique smoky taste of our toppings.” Divided into two, each portion of the brick oven is dedicated to baking vegetarian and non-vegetarian pizzas.
Custom baked
We start by exercising our limitless topping options from the 36 available at present, displayed much like a Subway restaurant counter. From unique options like artichoke, broccoli, potatoes, green peas, prawns and mango, we pick an adventurous combination that includes cauliflower, chicken tikka, broccoli and jalapeno as our customisation. All locally-sourced produce, fresh ingredients are used to make the in-house sauces, traditional flavours but with special tweaks.
The pizza arrives in close to seven minutes and is a wheat-based toasty thin-crust with minimal homemade sauce and cheese. Weighing more towards a less-flour more-topping pizza, it is a healthy creation, showcasing subtle vegetable flavours that is paired off with the crunch from its base. Quite the strategy to get the kids to eat their vegetables without too much of a fuss. We try also the extremely mildly-spiced Alfredo white pasta that has black olives, bell peppers and paneer cubes, suitable only for subtle taste buds. In retrospect, we would have picked the Buffalo spicy or House of red sauce and recommend the same or a spicier option. From the drinks menu we suggest you try the virgin mojito, a strong lime-mint carbonated drink,or a vanilla-strawberry milkshake that is topped with a scoop of ice cream and fruit slices for the complete meal.
Spreading like wildfire
With food deliveries and franchise plans on the cards, Hemaanand tells us that the restaurant will keep reinventing itself by introducing 6-inch and 18-inch pizzas and range of Italian desserts in line with their cuisine.
Average price for two people is Rs 700.