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When Waldy Malouf, the executive chef and co-owner of the popular open-hearth restaurant Beacon in New York, announced he was getting into the pizzeria business, most observers were pretty confident he wasn't talking about your average New York slice joint.
And, as predicted, the high-end chef has taken the concept of the traditional neighborhood pizzeria and given it an upper-crust twist, offering pies prepared in a wood-burning oven and topped with ingredients like braised lamb, roasted lemon and oregano.
Called Waldy's Wood Fired Pizza and Penne, the fast-casual concept also offers a selection of penne dishes, salads, wine and beer. Malouf has added some unusual touches, like allowing customers to snip fresh herbs from a window box and sprinkle them on their pies or penne. Infused oils also are available to flavor the dishes.
Malouf - who previously had run the kitchens at The Rainbow Room and the Hudson River Club in New York - calls his concept "an evolved pizzeria."
"It's pizza put together with a chef's thoughts behind it - together with some classic combinations," he says. "It's very much ingredient-driven, as opposed to the 2,000 other pizzerias in...