Why is the hottest restaurant in Singapore right now a pizza joint?
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Why is the hottest restaurant in Singapore right at present a pizza articulation?
Less than a fortnight into its opening, Lucali BYGB – an offshoot of the famed eating house in Brooklyn, New York – is thrumming with diners eager for a taste of its enormous, illustrious pies.
At Lucali BYGB, the pizzas are baked in an oven designed by the same person as the one in New York. (Photo: Lucali BYGB)
08 Aug 2022 06:30AM (Updated: 05 Jul 2022 01:30AM)
It is the name and pizza that's on everyone's lips. Even months earlier the commencement 18-inch pie was served on our shores, as Singapore sheltered at home during the Apr-to-June lockdown, all any hipster foodie could talk about was the fact that Brooklyn's dear Lucali had opened an outpost hither.
Never heed that most of them had never been to the restaurant in Carroll Gardens or tasted its much-talked-virtually pizzas. If Jay-Z and Beyonce would ditch the 2022 Grammy Awards to dine at the Brooklyn establishment, then surely the pies must be worth the clamour.
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One-time MEETS ORIGINAL
Tucked away in Kampong Bugis, in an industrial building so erstwhile that it's cool again, Lucali BYGB was about going to be a regular eating house sans the Brooklyn pedigree. Its American owner Gibran Baydoun (his initials contribute to the Singapore branch's suffix) had initially conceived a familial eatery rooted in communal eating and huge pizzas. When he told his friend, Lucali owner Marker lacono, nigh his plans, lacono was quick to jump in.
"I never thought this was going to be a Lucali in any way," said the 31-year-quondam Baydoun, who spent the last four years in Singapore consulting for establishments such as Adrift by David Myers and private members' club 1880.
"Lucali in Brooklyn cannot be duplicated. It'southward like a relic, a time capsule of erstwhile-school Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin playing in the background, and I felt that this space wouldn't actually lucifer that. And so our mission became to create a restaurant that's well-nigh having this banquet with friends that'due south just fun, no nonsense and simple, but really, really thoughtful. And it simply happens that our pizzas and calzones come from Lucali, which is a place that has such magic to me."
Anyone who's experienced the Lucali mothership and comes to its Singapore namesake expecting the same feel would thus be disappointed. The Brooklyn original is, as Baydoun said, inimitably erstwhile-schoolhouse New York-Italian; Lucali BYBG is contrarily cool and buzzy, appointed tuckshop-style with long wooden tables and benches, and purposefully unfinished tile and physical floors.
The menu is uncomplicated and compact. There are merely 3 salads; a scattering of appetisers; meatloaf; three pastas; a pizza; calzone; and dessert. With such simplicity of choice, the restaurant's appeal lies in its ambient, free energy and service.
"The final thing I want is for people to come in here and experience like this is a eating place," explained Baydoun rather counter-intuitively. "So we try to get away from restaurant terms similar 'are you finished with that' or 'are yous still working on that'… annihilation that sounds technical. Nosotros want it to experience like domicile."
"The concluding thing I want is for people to come up in here and experience like this is a restaurant… We want it to feel similar home." – Gibran Baydoun
TACKLING THE INTANGIBLES
Indeed, it is the abstracts – the unseen, difficult-to-pin-downwardly qualities that make Lucali such a hitting in Brooklyn – that Baydoun tries to recreate in his undeniably unique location here. "Information technology really comes downward to setting a step and tone," he pressed on. "Nosotros try to be quick and energetic. The restaurant should always feel buzzy and upbeat, from the music to the way we movement."
In that respect, the almost fortnight-old eatery is succeeding. The dining room was full and in full swing when we rocked upwardly at 6.30pm 1 weekday evening. "Nosotros could only get a 5pm slot, so we took information technology," said a friend nosotros bumped into on the mode to our table at the back of the dining room. Last we checked, reservations for sensible dinner hours between 7pm and 8.30pm are total for at least the next iii weeks.
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WHICH BEGS THE QUESTION: DOES THE PIZZA Alive UP TO ITS HYPE?
In true New York manner, Mark lacono's Brooklyn pizzas are oversized, rough-hewn and unabashedly simple. Each pie is equally unfussy every bit a hand-formed based topped with a swirl of red sauce and torn mozzarella, and given a turn in the oven before a quick shower of grated Grana Padano and fresh basil leaves. The pies at Baydoun's Singapore chapter are unquestionably different.
"Information technology'southward supposed to be dissimilar," chimed Baydoun. "For one, Lucali has been effectually for 15 years, so Mark's pizza oven is 15 years onetime and it gets better and more than seasoned with time. Our oven, though it is designed by the same person who built Mark'due south, is new, and we have to await years for it to cook the aforementioned way."
"It is what it is," he continued, knowing full well that comparisons are inevitable. "Mark is very involved and nosotros're all staying up tardily every night and making pizzas together. And honestly, null will ever be the same equally someone'due south fantasy of a pizza they've never tried or a memory of what they had at Lucali a couple of years ago… It's merely going to be different, but I call back information technology's pretty damn good."
Without doubt, the pizzas at Lucali BYBG, turned out past chef Ariana Flores (of the now-defunct Osteria Mozza) are rich, chewy and crusty, a cross between a light and blistery Neapolitan-way pizza and its quintessentially dense and drippy New York cousin. The deep, rustic tartness of Roma tomatoes is evident in the red sauce which is shrouded in melted mozzarella that toughens as the pie cools.
The 18-inch pies feed 4 people amply, but bear in mind that there are other excellent options vying for precious tum space. To wit: The meatloaf made according to Baydoun'south mother's recipe and the spicy vodka rigatoni laced with plenty of kick. The Calzone, filled with buffalo mozzarella and oozing with ricotta, is spectacular and comes with a side of that comforting lycopersicon esculentum sauce to dip into.
STEADY DOES IT
The offset three months for many new restaurants in Singapore are typically a whirlwind of wooing media and diners, and grappling with teething issues while running a full house. For a eatery saddled with as much hype as Lucali is, opening month has been even more fraught.
"We are simply so humbled by the corporeality of excitement around our opening," Baydoun said. "I shouldn't be shocked considering if in that location's one thing Singaporeans like to do, it'due south endeavour new restaurants. We've only been open a week and people want to come every bit presently and equally correct away as possible. And we're trying to tell people that we are non a pop-up. Nosotros are going to exist here for a long time. We have a long charter."
In other words, chill out, folks. The eating house, and those pizzas, volition all the same be at that place when the frenzy abates.
"Nosotros are just so humbled by the amount of excitement around our opening… [Although] I shouldn't exist shocked because if at that place'due south one thing Singaporeans like to practice, it'southward try new restaurants." – Gibran Baydoun
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Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/experiences/lucali-bygb-pizza-restaurant-singapore-247606
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