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Leave it to Matt & Ted Lee to get the early deets on Brooks Reitz’s new pizzeria. For January’s issue of Food & Wine, the Lee Bros. attended a dinner party at the Reitzes house where Brooks and his wife Erin served up some pies with toppings teasing what one might expect at his forthcoming Melfi’s (721 King St.).
[content-3] The five-page-spread has all the requisite aspirational features — beautiful besties (including Waterkeeper-cum-oysterman Cyrus Buffum and Basic Kitchen owners Ben & Kate Towill) chilling with Negronis, a spotless kitchen space that produces only camera-worthy dishes, a spread highlighting nothing but the couple’s internationally-sourced tchotchkes, and, then finally, there’s the food.
“Then it’s time for the main event. The Reitzes set out a buffet on the dining room talbe. There’s fregola with lemon and zucchini and a chopped salad composed of classic antipasto elements: sopressata, peperoncini, black olives, and provolone. A selection of sheet pan pizzas includes pistachio pesto with ricotta and a classic Roman combination of tomato sauce, stretchy stracciattella cheese, and fresh basil leaves,” the brothers Lee write.
But Brooks confesses, these aren’t exactly Melfi’s quality pies. Due to his lack of a home wood-burning oven (and his chef? Melfi’s Chef John Amato is not mentioned in the story), his crust is nowhere near what he hopes to serve at the restaurant — “a crackery, thin Roman-style crust.”
[content-1] No bother, Charleston photographer Peter Frank Edwards makes the pizzas look damn delicious anyway.
For more details, pick up a copy of Food & Wine and look for Melfi’s to open in 2018.
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