Author: Priyanka Saxena on Sep 10,2017

There have been plenty of wine pairings throughout the years. Sommeliers have matched choice wines with their respective dishes and main courses to make the ultimate dining experience. There have been countless classes and books about matching the perfect wine with cheese. Even more about matching wine with certain cuts of beef, pork and fish.

Just when you thought there were no more foods left to match wine with, a new restaurant-bar craze has hit the streets. This time our favorite wines are going to be matched a favorite Italian staple of pizza. Yes, bread, sauce and cheese served over a fire-brick oven will be served with your favorite year of red, wine or blush. This won't be the typical pizza you purchase at Ray's in Manhattan but it will be of gourmet variety. 

The normal Italian dish we usually match with wine is pasta. Lasagna, spaghetti or chicken parmigiana is the usual meal we eat while sipping down our favorite Merlot or Shiraz. The iconic movie “The Godfather” had the venerable hitman, Clemenza, mixing red wine into his meat sauce while advising Michael Corleone on the ways of love. But matching pizza, which is thought of as "street food" seemed to be an unfashionable thing to do. In the 1980's, Wolfgang Puck came out with the California Pizza Kitchen franchise and changed the common opinion of what pizza should be. And that tradition carries on.

A new restaurant in the hip, fashionable Abbot Kinney section of Venice Beach, CA will officially market itself as a true “pizza and wine bar”. South End will be serving everyone’s favorite Italian pie alongside an extensive wine list. The restaurant will be headed by two famous LA chefs that have made names for themselves in the Italian scene. Chef Frank Fermin of Mozza and partner Mario Vollera of Piccolo Venice will be taking their experience from those great restaurants into this new pizza and wine venture.

The intimate, minimalistic resto-bar will only seat 28 and besides serving wines and pizza and will have an extensive menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Salads, cheeses, rustic flatbreads are among the dinner items to order if you don’t feel the need for pizza. The breakfast menu consists of croissants, cinnamon rolls, brioche and apple turnovers. The main item in the menu will of course be the pizza and they will be touting handmade mozzarella cheese, freshly grown tomato sauce and slow-roasted Roma tomatoes.

If you are bringing the kids along, South End has a great Soda menu: Root beer, cream soda,  ginger brew and rhubarb soda are just a few of the interesting non-alcoholic drinks available. South End will be soft launching the restaurant for the time being with a full launch coming in a couple of weeks. If you’ve never had wine with pizza, you should. It is one of the greatest combinations ever. Gourmet pizzas are being created all the time, finally they are getting matched with top wines.