Uemé
Uemé burst onto the Lecce pizza scene in mid 2022 and as you walk in you feel like wow this place is buzz as fuck. They've really gone for it. It's like an exhibition space for contemporary twenties lighting (two thousand and twenties that is). There's spacious wooden tables, greenery, a fancy bar, different levels of seating, smooth wooden banquets with USB ports, Gen Z music, the entire playbook of the modern venue has been delivered here and its just impossible to ignore.
The reason it's impossible to ignore is that sat inside Uemé, sipping a cocktail and basking in the perfect level of illumination, you could be forgiven for thinking you were in the meatpacking district, or Chelsea, or the lower east side of New York. But you're not. We’re in Lecce. This is a Lecce pizzeria. And Lecce pizzerias are not like this. Or at least they weren't.
La Gigante
When I walked in La Gigante for the first time I was like ‘wow this is a proper pizzeria’. It feels very newly refurbished, it’s been tiled to mid height in a deep red and then left largely neutral except for some lovely lights and a set of tables and chairs. Absolutely no bullshit whatsoever. It’s so nice to be inside there, top marks to whoever was in charge of the refit.
And it’s backed up by some very serious pizza. This is top end pizza but it’s NOT napoletana, which for me is both brave and very refreshing (…as the whole pizza zeitgiest has been moving towards napoletana for some time now). So if it’s not napoletana what is it? I guess it’s actually what most people, especially from the older generations know as ‘thin and crispy’ Italian pizza, which is much more traditional in most parts of Italy. When you order a pizza here the base is really ‘croccante’ (crispy), they’re definitely using farina semola either on the pizza making table or in the dough (or both) which is more classic for the deep south of Italy. If you hold a slice up it won’t flop over but will stay firm. They have a spectacular array of pizzas from humble options to more fancy-pants top-end choices packed with the very best local ingredients from Salento and Puglia.
400 Gradi
A lot has already been said/written about 400 Gradi online… and with its status as Lecce’s only super-buzz, world-class, neapolitan-pizza-scene pizzeria I won’t lie; it’d be very entertaining to have a go at bursting the bubble. Somehow it feels like the Juve or the Man United or the Real Madrid of Lecce, and lets face it everyone hates those kind of super clubs.
But the thing about 400 Gradi is that unlike Juve/Man United/Real Madrid - it’s actually consistently good. In fact, it’s consistenly excellent.