Lala’s Brooklyn Apizza (990 Metropolitan Ave.), a New Haven-style pizzeria on the rooftop of Grimm Artisanal Ales, opened this past weekend. After three years of experimentation, Lauren and Joe Grimm, the husband and wife duo behind the brewery, opened their first pizzeria on Friday, July 21.
The Grimms took inspiration from the famous New Haven pizzerias frequented by the couple in the early days of Grimm when they were nomadic brewers, but they made it their own with an “impossibly” thin crust that is made with house-milled malted wheat, fermented with Grimm’s house sourdough culture, and baked in a wood-fired oven.
Lala’s uses “the same spontaneous fermentation that gives Grimm beers their unique flavor profiles in the pizza dough,” according to the team.
The Grimms have been passionate about fermentation since they met in 2005 and “just as Grimm brewery developed from their passion for homebrewing, Lala’s is the culmination of a passion for homemade sourdough breadmaking and pizza,” the company wrote on Instagram.
The Grimms told Greenpointers that the opening weekend of their rooftop pizzeria was “wild.”
The owners said, “We thought we had prepped for two days worth of pizzas with 160 dough balls, but ended up blowing through them in the first few hours.”
“Maeve, one of our pizza cooks, heroically stayed up late to make dough so that we could open the restaurant again on day two, and Joe had to make an emergency run to Costco for an extra fifteen pounds of pecorino,” the Grimms said.
The owners told Greenpointers that the two most popular pies of opening weekend were the clam pie and the cozy pie. The clam pie is made with local littleneck clams, aged mozzarella, garlic, Physica Riesling butter sauce, and fresh parsley. The cozy pie features mashed potatoes, mozzarella, and fermented cherry tomatoes, with the option to add bacon.
Other menu highlights include a little gem salad, a plate of house-fermented seasonal vegetables, and the squash pie with summer squash medallions, squash blossoms, egg yolk drizzle, ricotta, and cracked black pepper. The menu also offers two simpler pies. The red pie has tomato sauce, garlic, oregano, pecorino, and olive oil, while the white pie has mozzarella, garlic, oregano, pecorino, and olive oil.
The drink menu at Lala’s features a full list of Grimm beers, wines from Grimm’s recently-launched sister winery, Physica Wines, and a curated cocktail menu.
The dessert menu features an alcoholic gelée made with Physica Riesling and Physica Merlot. There is also a non-alcoholic gelée and chocolate chip cookies.
Lala’s Brooklyn Apizza is open Friday and Saturday 5 p.m. – 10 p.m. and Sunday noon – 5 p.m.