Base Pizza, the new venture by Adelaide hoteliers, Vicki Franzon-Lewis and Tony Franzon – owners of The Bath Hotel has opened it’s doors to an eager public and a hungry design crew.
In this month’s installment of Zynke Pie Day we head to Base Pizza. What was once a Auto spare parts store sharing a wall with the Bath Hotel water feature, is now a wood oven pizza joint serving small plates and cocktails. Opening onto the beer garden deck of The Bath Hotel, Base’s interior is very warehouse chic. Fantastic retro light fittings, exposed brick walls, crates for wine shelves and a Pizza oven so large it could flash roast a water buffalo in minutes. I spoke to the oven’s creator Glen from Traditional Brick Ovens he tells me that the oven is 1600mm internal! I’m not sure how many pizzas it can do – but it would seem to be a lot.
The Pizzas. It was a hungry crew for pizza testing today. With no lunch and an early finish to the day they were famished. We also had an extra in Charlie Junior (whom challenged Adam Riley in the most slices eaten). Pizzas ordered today were the Margherita, Meditteranean (chilli chicken), Di Mare (seafood) and Proscuitto.
They arrived in a timely fashion (the builder claims a 90 second cook from the oven). First impressions were mixed, initial comments were, ‘seafood pizza is a bit burnt on the base’, ‘not enough cheese’ to ‘well cooked base’, ‘great mix of flavours’ and ‘a nice thin proscuitto’. In relation to the other venues tested we roundly gave Base the third place honours for the year. With not much hope for the last restaurant (to be revealed), we felt that Base served delicious pizzas, on time, with a good variety of flavours. The crust was very good but no where near the standard of Mozzarella Bar and Etica. Having said that, Base certainly took down Saracens and Brunellis in the pizza build stakes. Price for base was average to slightly too expensive considering the sizes of the pies and the thinness of toppings. Although it was noted that takeaway pizzas were 20% cheaper which made it a better price if you wanted to eat in the car park and save $5.
As Base Pizza is 1/2 a Heineken’s walk from home i’m guessing I will be back to taste more of their fare.
