Pizza & beer, beer & pizza

Good pedigree is a prerequisite for many jobs, most crucially that of “person who feeds dogs”. Leveraging his Philly resto lineage to bring you pizza & beer: Birra.

A big-windowed joint from a dude who plucked himself off the Starr tree, Birra’s slatted banquettes, raw brick touches the resto will surely have to endure years of therapy for, and zebrawood bar surround an open kitchen dominated by a massive stainless oven used to produce a menu dedicated to its chef's dual loves of pizza and beer. Said pizzas come in 12" thin crust or an upside-down 'za pot pie "Birra Bowl", and include the Duck Confit with creme fraiche, caramelized onions & arugula pesto, and the red-sauced pancetta/ porchetta/ gabagool Three Little Pigs, plus to-order jawns topped with your choice of five cheeses, three sauces, meats including a family-recipe brisket, and seafood from clams, to mussels, to rock shrimp -- the default EQ on most decaPods. Bottled brews include Sours (Ichetegems Grand Cru), Ambers (Left Hand Sawtooth), Browns (Cigar City Maduro), and Stouts (Bell's Kalamazoo), while the can list offers Oskar Blues G'Knight, Sixpoint Sweet Action, and 21st's Back In Black, which isn’t for those about to bock, as it’s an IPA.

Although the Noid might not be too happy about it, they're also prepping non-pizzas including shareable salumis with house pickles and a red grape mustard, and mains like anchovies in caper butter & lemon. Best of all, drop in any afternoon prior to the opening later this week and say "Thrillist sent me" for a free taste of whatever they're test-cooking, filling the crucial role of "person who feeds you".

Photo by deeCuisine.com