I recently realised I regularly go to many great Bristol Independents and don’t write them up here. I always falsely believe they’re so good they don’t need the boose and the praise but in this climate, everyone needs as much help as possible so I am going to be catching up on a few regular haunts I need to crow more about on the blog as well as via Twitter and Instagram.
Berthas Pizza is another road to bricks and mortar success story, starting in a beautiful yellow jeep and winding up in a beautiful yellow restaurant. Sat atop the Gaol Ferry Steps, this open plan pizza restaurant is where I go to hide on Friday afternoons. Yo have a choice of three tiers of seating, top tier in the roof, second tier at the kitchen bar and third on the large shared tables on the first floor. My favourite place to sit is of course up at the bar so I can focus my piggy eyes on my pizza being made, fired, finished and served piping hot.
The Berthas oven is a thing of beauty, a proper Neopolitan wood fire with such an intense heat your pie is done in around 60 seconds! The menu is innovative with plenty of veggie and meaty options, personal favourites are The Umami Bomb, a mozzarella, smoked & roasted potatoes, miso mayo and black garlic triumph and the Meat & Heat, mozzarella, Cobble Lane Cured pepperoni and drizzled with hot honey. The pizzas have a chewy, charred crust, the sort you have grown to love if you like your sourdough pizzas, and the toppings are always generous but balanced. With the heat and expertise of the pizza chefs (if you’re lucky, Mr Bertha, aka Graham is at the paddle) your meal is perfectly cooked, evenly baked and there is no soggy middle.
Speaking of that hot honey, GOOD LORD! Bertha’s have stumbled onto something incredible, jars of honey are infused with fruity, whole scotch bonnets and left to take on that incredible heat. Drizzle that one literally anything and you have a party, a friend of mine is taking it home to try it on fruit and we both know it’s going to be amazing. You can pick up your own jar on the bar top.
This yellow place really is dear to my heart and introducing people to Bertha’s really does bring me joy. However, it will forever be my Friday escape plan at lunchtime, if you have never taken yourself off for an entire pizza and a good podcast for lunch you haven’t lived!
Find Bertha’s here and look out for their giro nights, a night of unlimited pizza, incredible toppings and lots of fun!
Bedsit Bonne Vivante 