Our Pizza Story
A chain of events that lead us exactly to where we are, for those interested in reading Pab & Max's pizza story.
Essentially our starting point was to mirror our Valletta situation in Spinola. With that in mind we started off works in the garden and immediately realised that we setting up a bar in the gardens would not have done the property complete justice.
So from the get go, we already had in mind to try change the concept in Spinola from that of Valletta.
So our first event was definitely St. Patrick's Day, we had it all planned out, an awesome line up of top local DJ's the works, but yeah along came the Covid monster and shut us down completely.
As much as we wished this to happen, we knew that the responsible thing to do was to cancel the event. So even before it was announced by the government we pulled the plug and postponed this event for next year (which god willing, Covid free will be F$%&* awesome).
Instead of just crying about the situation, we set out to work harder than ever to create an awesome vibe in the garden, so that if we open or whenever we open, we would be ready with a cool little spot for friends and family to come and once again hopefully socialize.
We did our utmost with our limited budgets, we stretched out every cent possible by means of scouring through marketplace to find deals for tables and chairs from other establishments that unfortunately went belly up in this same time. Getting down, dirty and personal with the task at hand is our style. If you want it done right, you got to do it yourself.
Construction Work
Prepping Tables
Garden Design
Final Touches
Setting Up
Enter the Pizza!
At a certain point during this covid pandemic, we started to realise that large social gatherings that we were used to producing might become a thing of the past so we needed to hatch a new plan and re-invent ourselves.
For many years our father (who has a passion for food) always wanted us to open a pizza joint. During this pandemic we all of a sudden thought, lets deliver pizza!
We had no idea how to make pizza but the existing kitchen in Spinola had a big catering convection oven and we hatched out our initial plan. A Crisis pizza!
We found a supplier to sell to us ready made par-baked pizza bases, we'd slap on the toppings and go out to deliver to families around our area!
That was a fail. We tried very hard to convince ourselves that it would work but the fact of the matter was that we were not producing something we were proud of. So for that reason, this idea never saw the light of day.
We decided to do it all from scratch
From that moment we decided to produce a fucking good ass pizza! No expense spared, no process hastened. We had a lock down covid mission.
We enlisted Isaac, my sister's boyfriend, a food scientist and began the incredible task (which we had yet to find out) to create the dough!
We thought that we would download a recipe with a lot of positive feedback, tweak it a little and boom! But no, that is not how it went down...
Max perfecting the dough
Step 1 - Mixing
Step 2 - Proofing
Step 3 - Testing
Flour, water, yeast, salt, repeat.
That was our mantra for a long time. The amount of variables are mind boggling and changing one link in the entire process, produces an entirely different end result.
Aside from the variations in measurements one needs to deal with the time the dough mixes and how long it proofs for. With all those variations then producing margarita pizzas to taste the finished possible end product. Needless to say, we are done eating a pizza margarita for a number of years now 😉
Our Perfect Pizza ✨
It was a long journey, but finally we came up with a recipe and a consistency that we are very happy and proud of.
We blended two pizza styles together to come up with a hybrid, we created a Neapolitan style pizza with some Roman traits. Come see for yourself 😉
Enter Gianni
Both of us however are not professional chefs and have no idea how to run a tight ship. For this reason we were luckily able to convince Gianni to jump onboard this project of ours so that we could come up with a menu that was slightly different to your average pizza joint.
Gianni has many talents and is the number one recruiter. Thanks to him we have an awesome kitchen team, all pulling the rope together.
Chef Gianni
Small side note
This post is dedicated to the pizza side of things, but a small mention is very deservedly to the whole floor team that kick ass on a daily basis, from the Bar where the magic cocktails happen with (and in no particular order) Sheriff, Jonooo, Bumsie who hold down the fort on the daily to the floor guys, Rhi Rhi, Cain, Maya, Stan the man, Dave, Marko, Marion the French and Gary Braveheart.
Not to mention all of those who gave us shifts here and there whenever possible and whenever we were in dire need! 😉
To close
It was one hell of a fucking journey but we enjoyed every step of the way. We definitely have not reached our destination yet however we are enjoying this road we are taking.
The positive feedback has been astounding, we have a few kinks that need to be ironed out. Like waiting time, we know its an issue and we are continually doing our best to shorten the time. With our open kitchen concept, one can actually watch us produce every single pizza. With that its clear to the naked eye that work is going on at 100 miles an hour to ensure everyone gets an awesome pizza as fast as possible.
So if it takes a little long, we apologise in advance.
This is our pizza story!
Love, Pab & Max.