Lucali pizza

Pizza preferences are proving themselves practically as controversial and divisive as the Maya's donnybrooks of old. Love it šŸ˜Ž
 
Going to see Luigi at Les Bananiers shortly. Grandkids will get pizza, I the sirloin steak special with small salad and frites for 16E, I am certain the four of us will be very happy!
 
Going to see Luigi at Les Bananiers shortly. Grandkids will get pizza, I the sirloin steak special with small salad and frites for 16E, I am certain the four of us will be very happy!
I think so too. ENJOY!
 
We tried Lucali the other night. I was hesitant but wanted to give a fair assessment since there is only one way to find out! Unfortunately I was underwhelmed though my husband a bit more enthusiastic. On the positive side, the staff very friendly and the space nicely updated. I started with a very good Negroni prepared table side. We did not order a lot so can only report on salad, pizza and eggplant parmesan. The summer salad was quite good—arugula with blue cheese, halved grapes and pistachios—though the portion very small. We ordered one pizza with mushrooms and pepperoni. Not to belabor the point, as previously discussed here on the forum, I grew up near New Haven so know a bit about thin crust pizza. It was enough for 3 and overall a decent pizza but not for the price they are charging. I found the crust slightly soggy in the middle, felt it needed more time in the oven (or higher temp?) That said, we brought an order of eggplant home to try and it was quite good. It is Italian American style (thinly sliced, breaded, fairly cheesy) vs L’Isoletta’s which is more traditionally Italian and much lighter. I grew up eating excellent eggplant in the former style so do appreciate it, and Lucali’s is good, but here on St Barth I prefer L’Isoletta’s. In fact, for us—except for more comfortable seating— L’Isoletta wins across the board.
We then went to Casa Coloniale for a drink. It was fairly busy being its first night. The space is pretty much the same with some minor changes and new furniture. We had excellent espresso martinis at the bar though did not look at menus. As much as we all miss Baz Bar, the space remains a beautiful spot on the harbor.
 
Last edited:
We visited waiting until the second week of opening in hopes that they would have worked out the kinks. Two Cocktails, one bottle of wine, house signature salad and one pizza to share. Menu is expensive for what we received .

Service subpar, everyone still very much confused. Our Cocktails arrived and immediately after so did our bottle of wine, first faux-pas. Before we finished our cocktails our pizza arrived and arrved incorrectly and sent back second faux-pas. Our correctly ordered pizza finally arrived and flavors and texture very underwhelming.
Our salad finally arrived after we asked a third time at the end of our meal, third faux-pas.
We will not be returning .
 
We visited waiting until the second week of opening in hopes that they would have worked out the kinks. Two Cocktails, one bottle of wine, house signature salad and one pizza to share. Menu is expensive for what we received .

Service subpar, everyone still very much confused. Our Cocktails arrived and immediately after so did our bottle of wine, first faux-pas. Before we finished our cocktails our pizza arrived and arrved incorrectly and sent back second faux-pas. Our correctly ordered pizza finally arrived and flavors and texture very underwhelming.
Our salad finally arrived after we asked a third time at the end of our meal, third faux-pas.
We will not be returning .
Your report & that of Amery are very valuable, I would think, for operations management & Mark Iacono, founder of Lucali in Brooklyn. I met & had a fairly lengthy conversation with him at the SBH restaurant’s opening night. It seems to be something like a joint venture between him (a very fine person, in my impression) & some of ā€St. Tropezā€ investors who have interests in a number of other island restaurants, principally in & around Gustavia. Markā€˜s role is quality control of food . . . whereas service in the restaurant is the dominion of its St. Tropez investors. I’ll direct attention to this ā€œthreadā€ to each of them — as I said, I think the comments will be important to them.
 
In my experience, virtually worldwide and class-of-restaurant wide, one has to manage service regarding timing of beverages and food.
There’s not a restaurant on SBH where I don’t make it clear to serveur/serveuse that we wish to profiter de nos apĆ©ritifs/cocktails before any plat (beyond a shareable) is served.
I prefer that wine be brought early (and tasted, not poured) so as not to wait on it when entrƩes arrive.
 
Sad to hear the pizza wasn’t great. I suspect that Mark isn’t in the kitchen making them. In the early day of Lucali pre pandemic you could show up and get a table within 1/2 hour. Mark would be there making every pizza. Didn’t have a liquor license so you went to the local place down the street and picked up a bottle. Pizza was marvelous. Then David Chang did a show on Mark and the place just exploded into the blogosphere. It’s been overwhelming ever since. He opened a takeout spot not too far away, Baby Lucā€˜s. Every time I walk by the scent is amazing.

@Amery what is your favorite NH pizza spot? We are partial to Zuppardi’s and Modern but had lunch this weekend at Bar. Bar is very underrated.
 
We tried Lucali the other night. I was hesitant but wanted to give a fair assessment since there is only one way to find out! Unfortunately I was underwhelmed though my husband a bit more enthusiastic. On the positive side, the staff very friendly and the space nicely updated. I started with a very good Negroni prepared table side. We did not order a lot so can only report on salad, pizza and eggplant parmesan. The summer salad was quite good—arugula with blue cheese, halved grapes and pistachios—though the portion very small. We ordered one pizza with mushrooms and pepperoni. Not to belabor the point, as previously discussed here on the forum, I grew up near New Haven so know a bit about thin crust pizza. It was enough for 3 and overall a decent pizza but not for the price they are charging. I found the crust slightly soggy in the middle, felt it needed more time in the oven (or higher temp?) That said, we brought an order of eggplant home to try and it was quite good. It is Italian American style (thinly sliced, breaded, fairly cheesy) vs L’Isoletta’s which is more traditionally Italian and much lighter. I grew up eating excellent eggplant in the former style so do appreciate it, and Lucali’s is good, but here on St Barth I prefer L’Isoletta’s. In fact, for us—except for more comfortable seating— L’Isoletta wins across the board.
We then went to Casa Coloniale for a drink. It was fairly busy being its first night. The space is pretty much the same with some minor changes and new furniture. We had excellent espresso martinis at the bar though did not look at menus. As much as we all miss Baz Bar, the space remains a beautiful spot on the harbor.
"I found the crust slightly soggy in the middle,"

Strange as ours was so overdone that practically inedible.
 
Try Les Bananiers
You will not find an inedible pie made by Luigi!
Agreed! After sampling them all, from Eden Rock to the newest spot, we are 100% convinced Colombier is the first stop for pizza in St Barth, with JP in Corossol a very close second.
 
Actually 3 of us we ate there on November 18th, & it was great. We had a VERY large Marguerita Pizza, Chix Parm, & Eggplant Parm. Very good wine list, too.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_1761.jpeg
    IMG_1761.jpeg
    516.9 KB · Views: 118
  • IMG_1532.jpeg
    IMG_1532.jpeg
    3.2 MB · Views: 95
  • IMG_1531.jpeg
    IMG_1531.jpeg
    1.2 MB · Views: 87
  • IMG_1528.jpeg
    IMG_1528.jpeg
    3.1 MB · Views: 86
  • IMG_1527.jpeg
    IMG_1527.jpeg
    1.4 MB · Views: 105
Top