A tavern pie from the sourdough specialists at Ops.
Photograph: Courtesy of the topic
Since opening in 2016, Bushwick’s Ops has grow to be a vacation spot for its sourdough, Neapolitan-ish pizza. The pies are wood-fried and ornamented with broccoli rabe and ricotta salata; the perimeters embody marinated butter beans; and the wines are, in fact, pure. However rising up in St. Louis, Mike Fadem — a co-owner with Marie Tribouilloy and Gavin Compton — was raised on a special type of pie, a midwestern skinny crust epitomized by the native chain Imo’s. Its cracker crust is baked arduous till inflexible sufficient to be reduce into squares, and topped with precooked tomato sauce and gooey processed-cheese combine generally known as Provel. “I used to be consuming it earlier than I keep in mind,” Fadem says. “My dad is obsessive about all these little mom-and-pop locations in St. Louis, and so they’re all the identical — however he can inform the distinction.” One of many pizzas at Ops, the Cicero, is known as for a favourite childhood spot. “He’ll be like, ‘The dough right here, the dough is superb.’”
Now, Fadem has the prospect to present his childhood greater than a single honorary pie: Subsequent week, he, Tribouilloy, and Compton will open a second location of Ops within the East Village. (A fourth accomplice, Alex Alan, can also be concerned and can run service.) The eating room is generally recessed, with a street-level part up entrance that has a banquette for ten and overlooks the remainder of the house. There are extra deep-red banquettes down the ramp, a custom-made stainless-steel bar, and wineglasses printed with a cute drawing (by Tribouilloy) of mortadella.
This Ops was not opened particularly so Fadem may discover the probabilities of St. Louis pizza, however it did give him a cause to ask, What if we Ops-ified it? He’s had cracker crusts on the thoughts for some time now. Since final June, he’s been tinkering away at his Williamsburg restaurant, Leo, which has the identical PizzaMaster oven he’ll use within the East Village. Fadem found out the recipe with RJ Sansotta, the chef of Ops (who maintains an affinity for Domino’s skinny crust), after a analysis journey to the Midwest: “I assumed at first it was type of an experiment. Can we do that with our sourdough and funky flours? What does that seem like? We have been simply type of fucking round,” Fadem says. They tried an intensive recipe they didn’t like, studied a video detailing the Imo’s pizza course of, and ate tavern pizza round Chicago to look at all of the strategies. However they discovered their gold commonplace at Zaffiro’s in Milwaukee: “The best way they do it’s the approach to do it.”
The 11-inch pies at Ops are known as “tavernettas”; they received’t be a one-for-one re-creation of St. Louis skinny crust, and no person’s going to confuse the Ops Pisalladiere for Imo’s Candy Warmth. It’s a riff on the Provençal flatbread with its trio of caramelized onions, black olives, and anchovies. The basic will probably be simply that: Caputo Brothers mozzarella (sorry, no Provel) with tomatoes, cheese, oregano, most likely slightly chile and garlic. The Hawaiian — properly, you already know what that’s. “For some cause, folks convey it up on a regular basis,” Fadem says. They’re utilizing coppa, the cured pork shoulder. “It jogged my memory of Canadian bacon once we baked it on a pizza. And the pineapple is baked on; we’re not attempting to reinvent the wheel right here.”
Even when experimentation will not be the main focus, growing a recipe for cracker crust did give the staff one other concept: “We have been fascinated with all these Michelin eating places in Copenhagen and all these locations that make these crackers with all these items that wouldn’t usually go into pizza dough,” Fadem says. Utilizing entire wheat in common pizza dough is tough due to the best way it must rise. Flatter crackers don’t have that difficulty. In order that they landed on a recipe that’s 50 p.c whole-wheat flour, which Fadem says offers the tarevnetta pizzas a extra dynamic taste — however he doesn’t need anybody mistaking it for well being meals: “Anyone can prefer it and never be like, That is yuppy shit, granola or no matter.”
Together with the tavernettas, there would be the sourdough pizzas that Ops is thought for, just like the Rojo with its mortadella blanket over pickled peppers. Not like in Bushwick, although, the house right here has a correct kitchen the place they will cook dinner meals like lasagna and roasted La Salumina sausage with marinated greens. In any other case, the standard dishes have been introduced over from throughout the East River: the salads with French dressing, lentils like they served within the early years in Bushwick, flourless chocolate cake. And at last, there’ll be loads of wine, plus cocktails courtesy of Cedric Obando, the GM of the unique Ops in Bushwick.
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