Cast-Iron Skillet Pizza

I first read about this ‘secret’ pizza on Grub Street.com. At the Brindle Room in the East Village, pizza is not even on the menu. You have to ask the waitress for it and she has to check with the chef to make sure he can do it. Since I went there specially to try this off-menu pizza, I was really hoping and praying she would come back saying the chef could make it. And she did! The Brindle Room made a great impression as they offered us free drinks for simply moving to another table to accommodate a larger party that had just come in (the restaurant is small and cozy). I ordered the ‘Donkey Punch’ which turned out to be the most delicious drink I’ve ever had. It consisted of strawberry puree, mixed with hibiscus and sparkling wine. Now back to the pizza. The dough is fermented for 3 days and is then spread cold into a cold cast-iron skillet. Once the dough is ready, the skillet is placed over a flame and the chef builds the pizza as the dough cooks. Once the pizza is assembled, he places it in the oven to finish cooking. The result is a crust that is chewy and super-crispy around the edges. The type of pizza you get is decided by the chef; on this particular night it was a Margherita. Although simple, the sauce, cheese and basil was very flavorful and I really enjoyed it. The pizza did take a while to come out, and as another show of goodwill, they gave us free doughnut holes with a caramel sauce for dessert.

The Brindle Room’s menu

Donkey Punch: strawberry puree, hibiscus and sparkling wine

Doughnut holes with caramel sauce and powdered sugar