Our first weekend in Philadelphia and we were already in search of pizza. We headed to the Italian Market to yelp our way to a pizza shop. At that point, I had not done any research on restaurants in Philadelphia so I really knew nothing about where to go and what to eat. But when you crave pizza, you find pizza, and you eat pizza. We parked on Passyunk street and found Birra through yelp. It is a modern Italian restaurant serving mostly pizza and anti pastis. (See menu)
We started with the Salumi dish with three different types of cured meats served with pickles, red peppers and a special sweet sauce. The portions were very generous. It was the first time ever that we did not finish our Salumi dish.
The Salumi was served with a bowl of different fresh breads. The focaccia style bread was very oily but nevertheless tasty.
For our main dish we created our own pizza. You can choose between red or white sauce and choose the number of toppings. We chose red sauce with mozzarella cheese, fresh tomatoes and arugula.
It was a very flavorful pizza. Generous amounts of cheese and all other toppings. It is not a brick oven pizza and made like your average pizza: in an oven. But the end result is good enough.
If you like beer, you will also enjoy their variety of craft beers on tap and in bottles. We went very early on a Saturday but the place was almost full. A range of different characters and an overall loud ambiance. We also noticed that all the servers and bartenders were tattooed up. Perhaps its a criteria before getting hired? Overall, we both enjoyed our meal at Birra. The food was satisfactory and served in generous portions. It was not the best pizza I’ve ever had but it certainly did satisfy our craving.
