A tiled floor, brick walls, cork tables and black and white photos of hip-hop stars. There’s no doubt about it – this is a typical trendy right bank restaurant. A large wood fired oven takes up the middle of the room, again, no doubt about it, this is a trendy right bank pizza restaurant.
Faggio (meaning beech tree in Italian), does Calabrian thin crust pizzas, such as the immense margherita, with fresh basil and cow’s milk mozzarella. It’s a little too scant on the tomato sauce to be perfect but the La Reine, scattered with raw mushrooms, is a winner. Downside is, pizzas come served on metal platters, making them near impossible to cut.
Antipasti starters include marinated peppers and stracciatella (a type of gooey of Italian buffalo cheese curd). And for dessert, the classics: tiramisu, affogato (expresso poured over vanilla ice cream) or artisanal ice cream.
Rule of thumb at Faggio: the pizzas are best washed down something from the carefully thought out natural wine list. You can’t go wrong with a glass of the 2014 vendemmia from Lombardy.
TRANSLATION: MEGAN CARNEGIE