COCONUTS HOT SPOT – Roman trattoria Appia has rightly been hailed as one of the best new restaurants to open in Bangkok in the last couple of years. Paolo Vitaletti’s hearty, home-style cooking is unashamedly unctuous food for people who care only for pleasure. We love that. But there was always a large hole in the Appia menu – a pizza shaped hole. And so, Vitaletti and Appia partner Jarrett Wrisley are now addressing that issue with Peppina, their new pizzeria on Sukhumvit Soi 33.
Peppina has a similar look to its older sibling, though it feels more lively and pitched at a younger crowd. Tony Soprano holds court on one wall, though even he is dwarfed in presence by the huge wood-fired oven that Vitaletti and Wrisley had shipped to these shores from Italy. And they seem intent on offering pizza lovers humans something different with this new venture. Expect interesting pies like the friarielli e salsicce, with broccoli rabe, Italian sausage and smoked mozzarella, and the zucca, with pumpkin, Conciato di San Vittore cheese, walnuts and red onions. No Hawaiians here. The pies come in Mignon and Regular sizes and are reasonably priced at a typical THB220 for the former, THB300 for the latter.
New to Bangkok, as far as we’re aware, are the pizza fritta, which are fried pizzas that will certainly challenge the waistline. And there are some interesting salads which bring Jess Barnes’s cooking at Opposite Mess Hall to mind, and show Vitaletti is broadening his repertoire beyond the traditional Roman fare at Appia. Among them: a quinoa salad with green beans, pickled anchovies and cottage cheese; and a fregola salad with parsley, roasted tomato, candied lemon and burrata. Add to that a range of bruschette and grills, and you have a menu the city’s foodie mafia will be itching to get stuck into. Oh, and in what seems to have be a Jarrett Wrisley trademark, the booze menu will be a draw itself, with the same emphasis on unusual wines as Appia combined with cocktails and a range of Italian craft beers.
FIND IT:
Peppina
27/1 Sukhumvit Soi 33
Tuesday through Sunday, 6:30pm – 11pm
Photo: Peppina Facebook page
