Made of Dough team to launch Italian bar and diner

Made-of-Dough-team-to-launch-Italian-bar-and-diner-Palazzo.jpg

The team behind London-based Neapolitan pizza group Made of Dough is to launch an Italian bar and diner in Crystal Palace next month.

Called Palazzo, the neighbourhood-style restaurant will takeover the former Church Grill site on Church Road. 

Spanning 2,000 sq ft and holding 80 covers, it will feature large tables for groups, countertop seating, an open kitchen and a dedicated bar area.

An alfresco terrace will also open in the summer.

The menu will primarily focus on offering a mixture of small and large plates, with a selection of pizzas also available.

Dishes set to feature include mozzarella fritti and scotch bonnet honey; mortadella with fried sage; a salad of rocket, chicory, red onion and salted ricotta; and chicken Milanese with lemon and aioli.

Palazzo will also hold a late-night licence on weekends, with regular live DJ sets planned on Fridays and Saturdays.

Drink options will include an Italian wine list ranging from Piedmont to Sicily, alongside classic cocktails such as bicicletta and amaro spritz. There will also be draught beer from Brick Brewery and the Drop Project. 

“Palazzo is everything we’d want in a local hangout,” says Ed Sandeman, who founded Made of Dough with friends Henry Amodio and Harry Gibson.

“Good honest food, great drinks, extensive record collection driven by valve amps and Klipsch speakers, open early and late with DJs playing vinyl on the weekends. Heaven.”

Palazzo will be the Made of Dough teams second attempt at launching an offshoot of their core brand. The first, Roma Pizza, was billed as a 'fast and thin-crust pizzeria' with an emphasis on accessibility and affordability, where all pizzas on the menu cost £5. Having launched on Brick Lane in Shoreditch in late 2019, the site was subsequently repurposed as a Made of Dough restaurant.

Sandeman, Amodio and Gibson launched Made of Dough as a pop-up in 2014 and subsequently opened in Pop Brixton the following year.

The trio launched Made of Dough's long-awaited first bricks and mortar site in Peckham in 2017.