A tasty new concept has just been launched at all PizzaExpress restaurants in Edinburgh for summer 2013.
The Open House invitation – exclusive to the Capital - is the perfect enticement to stre-e-etch out your weekend, banish Monday blues and experience a good value meal on Sunday nights: BYOW – bring your own wine (no corkage) to accompany your favourite salads, pasta and freshly baked pizzas.
There are eight PizzaExpress venues in Edinburgh from Leith to Stockbridge, West End to Morningside, the newest in town which opened in February. The address at 1 Nile Grove is the former Braid Church designed in 1886 by George Washington Browne, a prolific Scottish architect renowned for the Caledonian Hotel and Edinburgh College of Art.
The octagonal, red sandstone Braid Church with a pillared entrance was influenced by the Italianate Renaissance style and the preserved architectural heritage of the domed ceiling, Venetian windows, organ and curved timber gallery creates a decorative setting and unique ambience. Today it’s a temple to praise Pizza!
The late, great novelist, Muriel Spark was brought up in Bruntsfield and attended James Gillespie’s school for Girls where her literary, if rather eccentric, education inspired her novel, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. To commemorate the local writer, colourful murals and portraits adorn the walls around the restaurant.
From the high domed ceiling hangs a huge chandelier, the dining space is smartly furnished with green leather banquette seating, while a central “theatre” kitchen has a row of stools, popular with children as they watch the chefs at work. Since the first PizzaExpress opened in London in 1965, the company has pioneered casual Italian dining for couples, families and parties of friends.
Recent innovations include low calorie Leggera Pizza, Create your own pizza and gluten-free dough, cakes and desserts. The new Summer menu is seriously tempting with a range of fresh, new dishes.
Start with a glass of fizzing Prosecco and share an Antipasto platter – a generous serving of chargrilled vegetables, juicy olives, spicy Peppadew peppers, mozzarella and rocket leaves. Then for main course, try a Romana Pizza which has the same amount of dough as the regular, but are larger, thin and crispy: The Padana combines goat’s cheese, spinach, red onions, garlic. I do like the Classic Fiorentina with an inventive soft fried egg placed in the middle.
Whether you love pepperoni, hot chillies, cheese, chicken or meat balls there’s a pizza for you.
So, why not take a bottle of wine or two to your local PizzaExpress around the city and enjoy an Open House supper with family or friends on a Sunday night.