Hugely grateful to Jonathan and the rest of the Vittles team for commissioning this and investing so much time and effort into making it readable. Important addendum to the piece: aside from the Pizza Expresses namechecked here, my favourite branches are those at Notting Hill Gate, Newcastle (Dean Street, now I think closed) and London Wall (ditto, tragically). The last was suspended directly above the road itself, and had an amazing, Blade Runner-ish view over Moorgate and the Barbican estate. Of the Fulham Broadway one - in which the urinal in the gents' was positioned right next to a street-facing, floor-to-ceiling window - the less said, the better.
Fully GASPED when the first Pizza Express described was my own childhood Pizza Express in Petersfield. I walked past it over Christmas and felt weirdly sad about how empty it was and how it had been the absolute height of sophistication for me as a young teen. It was the aspirational dining equivalent of those Ferrero Rocher towers in early noughties TV ads. My favourite Pizza Express is the one right on Lendall Bridge in York (if it's still there). Wonderful piece 💛
Love this article! But gotta set the record straight regarding Olive Garden in America. Not an old favorite, just a very recognizable sign of suburban wasteland. Dairy Queen a little more old school and yes, often cherished.
Ah I didn't realise the Stockbridge branch had closed! My nearest PE is in a magnificent circular church about 2 minutes walk from my house. I rarely go, but I'll still be gutted if it closes...
So interesting. I always loved how each branch had its own character. I grew up in Cambridge where there were two: one more old fashioned (with a piano player) and the other all straight lines and modern art. The branches since the chain expanded so hugely all seemed to be very identikit and lack personality - now I know why!
Loved this! Deanhaugh St was my local Pizza Express for a couple of years 2016-19 - I had a work leaving lunch there and it was an occasional source of takeaway pizza too (many of the city centre indies not delivering into Stockbridge).
I have been a fan of PE for years. My local is St Brelade’s Bay in Jersey. Watching the waves break on the beach whilst deciding which Pizza to have. A memorable Sunday evening.
Coptic Street saw me through my finals in the early 80s and remains my favourite branch. I was recently very grateful for the St Martin’s Lane one taking cash. Fiorentina and house red all the way.
Cannot tell you how much I enjoyed this article. My earliest restaurant memory must be me aged ~4 in the Leeds PE by the corn exchange (closed during Covid) eating black olives and longing to be among the ranks of monochrome-clad gods tossing dough behind the counter. A paper hat for the road was a better gift than any toy my loving parents might have bought me that day to satiate/pacify me while being dragged around the department stores along rainy Briggate. As a teenager with some new-found independence on the TransPennine Express, a Saturday afternoon visit to the York place on Lendal Bridge – replete with emerald-tiled urinals encased in glass like the museum piece they are – was all the confirmation I needed that I had ‘made it’ as a grown up. No booze (I was maybe 14) and voucher in wallet, you could eat for less than a tenner per head. I will always love pizza express, despite them killing off Da Morire to make room for Francesco Mazzei.
I recently ate at the Deanhaugh Street Franco Manca. A very sorry experience. In general Pizza Express was (and possibly still is) a 'safe' choice with consistent quality. Franco Manca seem to have missed that rather important point.
Hugely grateful to Jonathan and the rest of the Vittles team for commissioning this and investing so much time and effort into making it readable. Important addendum to the piece: aside from the Pizza Expresses namechecked here, my favourite branches are those at Notting Hill Gate, Newcastle (Dean Street, now I think closed) and London Wall (ditto, tragically). The last was suspended directly above the road itself, and had an amazing, Blade Runner-ish view over Moorgate and the Barbican estate. Of the Fulham Broadway one - in which the urinal in the gents' was positioned right next to a street-facing, floor-to-ceiling window - the less said, the better.
Fully GASPED when the first Pizza Express described was my own childhood Pizza Express in Petersfield. I walked past it over Christmas and felt weirdly sad about how empty it was and how it had been the absolute height of sophistication for me as a young teen. It was the aspirational dining equivalent of those Ferrero Rocher towers in early noughties TV ads. My favourite Pizza Express is the one right on Lendall Bridge in York (if it's still there). Wonderful piece 💛
Petersfield PE preferred entrance through garden from Waitrose car park was homage / throwback to San Lorenzo Wimbledon also designed by Enzo
Love this article! But gotta set the record straight regarding Olive Garden in America. Not an old favorite, just a very recognizable sign of suburban wasteland. Dairy Queen a little more old school and yes, often cherished.
And Kettners which tried to pretend it was something more than a Pizza Express by serving ‘pizzette’
Ah I didn't realise the Stockbridge branch had closed! My nearest PE is in a magnificent circular church about 2 minutes walk from my house. I rarely go, but I'll still be gutted if it closes...
Never thought I'd regret not going to PizzaExpress...
Ultimate plot twist at the end!
So interesting. I always loved how each branch had its own character. I grew up in Cambridge where there were two: one more old fashioned (with a piano player) and the other all straight lines and modern art. The branches since the chain expanded so hugely all seemed to be very identikit and lack personality - now I know why!
Loved this! Deanhaugh St was my local Pizza Express for a couple of years 2016-19 - I had a work leaving lunch there and it was an occasional source of takeaway pizza too (many of the city centre indies not delivering into Stockbridge).
I have been a fan of PE for years. My local is St Brelade’s Bay in Jersey. Watching the waves break on the beach whilst deciding which Pizza to have. A memorable Sunday evening.
Coptic Street saw me through my finals in the early 80s and remains my favourite branch. I was recently very grateful for the St Martin’s Lane one taking cash. Fiorentina and house red all the way.
Cannot tell you how much I enjoyed this article. My earliest restaurant memory must be me aged ~4 in the Leeds PE by the corn exchange (closed during Covid) eating black olives and longing to be among the ranks of monochrome-clad gods tossing dough behind the counter. A paper hat for the road was a better gift than any toy my loving parents might have bought me that day to satiate/pacify me while being dragged around the department stores along rainy Briggate. As a teenager with some new-found independence on the TransPennine Express, a Saturday afternoon visit to the York place on Lendal Bridge – replete with emerald-tiled urinals encased in glass like the museum piece they are – was all the confirmation I needed that I had ‘made it’ as a grown up. No booze (I was maybe 14) and voucher in wallet, you could eat for less than a tenner per head. I will always love pizza express, despite them killing off Da Morire to make room for Francesco Mazzei.
I recently ate at the Deanhaugh Street Franco Manca. A very sorry experience. In general Pizza Express was (and possibly still is) a 'safe' choice with consistent quality. Franco Manca seem to have missed that rather important point.