Does London need another pizzeria? Perhaps not. The capital may have reached ‘peak pizza’, but it has somehow managed to find room for one more, though strictly speaking, Yard Sale Pizza isn’t new. Capitalising on the success of the restaurant’s first location in Clapton, East London, Chef Nick Buckland and his team have launched a second restaurant in Finsbury Park, bringing the brand’s award-winning recipes to the north of the city.
Given London’s fully saturated pizza scene, the offerings here accordingly venture beyond tried and tested territory, with a creative menu based around five staple stone-baked pizzas that verge on experimental, yet are solidly well executed. The ‘TSB’, for example, is a healthful combination of tender stem broccoli, manchego, pine nuts, garlic and olive oil, while sides like garlic pizza bread with fior di latte mozzarella and Marmite playfully test boundaries. It’s all finished with gelato from Nonna’s in Highury, and washed down with beer from Hackney’s Five Points Brewery, who have also exclusively collaborated with Buckland on a series of beer-spiked ingredients for the pizzas here.
Like everything else about Yard Sale Pizza, the restaurant’s interior doesn’t stick to the script. Designed by local studio, Fettle, the dining room has the slight hint of a vintage Formica kitchen about it, with peach walls panelled with teal-coloured wood, chequered tile flooring and blackboard menus. Tabletops and countertops made from recycled yoghurt pots by Welsh firm Smile Plastics are a left-field décor detail and a suitable summary of the cheerful ethos of this place, while strip lighting and exposed pipework lend an unexpected industrial touch. Yard Sale may be one of many, but it certainly has the edge.
