Pizza Beach is one of my favorite restaurants on the Upper East Side. Dining options uptown can be very limited and the restaurants are often stuffy and unimaginative. Pizza Beach is a welcome addition to the UES scene! To start, the owner has nightlife experience and the cocktails for his new venture are created by his best bartenders. The crowd is young and hip and the decor is absolutely amazing; it’s Hamptons-inspired with bold art and a modern color palette. The NOBREAD team couldn’t stop ooh-ing and ahh-ing! Last but not least, the food is delicious and there are plenty of GF options…
To start, my table shared the burrata and the cannellini bean hummus. The burrata normally comes with a rosemary flatbread, but the chef was happy to prepare it with a crudite. No gluten and MUCH healthier! The salads at Pizza Beach reminded me of summer days, especially the citrus salad with endives, avocado, ruby red grapefruit, mandarin oranges, and a splash of citrus vinaigrette. A few bites of that salad had me feeling like it was a sunny day in Montauk, despite the blistering cold outside! For a main course, pizza was the way to go… I mean the restaurant was called PIZZA Beach. The gluten-free pizza dough was homemade and some of the best I’ve ever had! The crust was fairly thin and perfectly crisp on the bottom- a rarity! It was drizzled in plenty of olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt, so the texture reminded me of focaccia! All of the toppings were NOBREAD-approved, but I had several favorites. The kale and butternut squash is perfect for vegetarians; it’s colorful and delicious! If you’re more of a meat-lover, go for the spicy soppressata and mozzarella, which is a traditional Italian version of pepperoni. The best pizza, in my humble opinion, was the Thai coconut curry and rock shrimp. I’d never seen or tasted anything like it! Instead of sauce, the pie was covered in a creamy curry and topped with rock shrimp, ginger, and fresh cilantro. Order it! For the vegans out there, Pizza Beach offers Daiya cheese, so the gluten-free AND vegan folk can indulge, too!
I haven’t stopped thinking about the rock shrimp pizza and I can’t wait to go back to Pizza Beach! It’s definitely worth the subway uptown! The vibe is lively, the food is delicious, and the drinks are killer. Rose Sangria, Limoncello Mojito, and a Sex on the Pizza Beach?! Genius. I’m feeling really inspired to step up my summer cocktail game…