Pizza bars might sound like a snack waiting to be invented, but they’re so much more than that.
Particularly Cecconi’s in Soho.
It comes to us from the people behind Soho House, from which it sits only a literal stone’s throw away on Old Compton Street. Inside, the place boasts the same elegantly old-fashioned Art Deco charms as its Mayfair & Shoreditch-based siblings, with a striking black & white striped mosaic floor, a polished wooden bar, and framed vintage Italian ads blocking out almost every square inch of the pale blue walls.
This being a pizza bar, the menu is centred on the doughy essentials, with pizzas coming topped with ingredients like buffalo mozzarella, fennel sausage, artichoke, ‘nduja, smoked ricotta, and more. If, for some absurd reason you don’t want pizza, you’ll be happy to know that there’s a neat lineup of pasta too. Expect lasagne with beef ragù; classic carbonara; spinach & ricotta ravioli slathered in sage butter; and that great beacon of pasta restaurants – tonnarelli cacio e pepe (cheese and pepper). Backing that all up is a cast of starters and sides, from zucchini fritti with aioli to truffle arancini with fontina cheese – and from Sunday to Friday, you can get pasta dishes, jugs of beer and cocktails for a fiver a pop (3-6pm).
Speaking of which, there’s a well-curated selection of cocktails which include a couple on tap: the Aperol Spritz & negroni. If you want yours shaken the old-fashioned way, then you can spring for a range of well-made classics, from Tommy’s Margarita to elderflower-laced Hugo Spritzes. And beyond all that, there’s beer which includes a draught house lager, plenty of all-Italian wine, and a clutch of Italian aperitifs & digestifs.
Best of all, they’re open late – till 2am on Fridays and Saturdays – with DJs playing house music late into the night.
Which all sounds pretty good.
NOTE: Cecconi’s Pizza Bar is open daily. You can find out more, and make a booking, at their website right HERE.
Cecconi’s Pizza Bar | 19-21 Old Compton Street, W1D 5JJ
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