Portis Pizza, N1

A slice shop, Roman-style

London is going through a slice shop… well, not renaissance exactly, since that implies we ever had them in numbers before, but certainly a moment. In the last six months alone the guys from Detroit Pizza have opened Paulie’s, Michelin-starred Tom Kemble has pivoted to pizza at Spring Street, and Breadstall has expanded from a small stall to a full site in Soho. What all of these places have in common, along with older options from World Famous Gordos to Voodoo Ray’s, is that they’re trying to do New York.

Portis Pizza, which is about to launch officially after a month-long soft opening, is different. Instead of American, it’s Italian (though, oddly enough, co-owned by a North American — go figure), and more specifically Roman, serving up thick-based, square slabs of the city’s pizza al taglio.

The first thing you need to know about Portis is that it’s small. This really is a slice shop, not a slice restaurant, so don’t go in expecting lots of space and beautiful seating. Since I last visited they’ve opened a small outdoor seating area — and you always have the option of grabbing your slices and strolling a couple minutes to St James’s churchyard or Regent’s canal — but there’s nothing indoors at all.

The other thing to know is that Portis doesn’t really have a menu, per se. Owners Dika and Thomas Vicente-Artiss seem to make whatever they feel like that day, guided by some combination of ingredients, seasonality, and pure whimsy. One day there’ll be slices dotted with blobs of beef ragu, the next a white number with fennel sausage, courgette, and lemon ricotta. It won’t even all be pizza — at times you’ll find focaccia, olive-studded rolls, or crisp-baked sandwiches.

Roman square pizza tends to use a moisture-rich dough with a long proof, allowed to rise a little higher than most Neapolitan or New York pizzas. It’s usually a little breadier, though often still with a crisp crust and base. If I could fault Portis, it’s that the welcome inconsistency in the menu often extends to the dough too, and it feels like they’re still finding their footing when it comes to getting it just right every time — no serious fault of theirs given how new it all is. Sometimes slices come verging on focaccia thick, sometimes thin and crisp, and there’s no rhyme nor reason as to why. It might well all be perfectly intentional, but it doesn’t quite feel that way. Still, for all the dough may lack in consistency, it is good, and I wouldn’t want to suggest otherwise. Crispy, chewy, and light, on a good day, in a good slice, it’s more than just a vehicle for the toppings, and a major part of the appeal in its own right.

But oh, the toppings. If Portis’ dough is good, the toppings are simply superlative. The shop prioritises small British producers, from the pizza flour to the mozzarella, apparently only importing its olive oil, and uses them simply. While there’s no set menu, you’ll usually find a few core options like a margherita, or a tomato slice topped with salami. There’s almost always something burnished only by fresh tomatoes, stracciatella, and a delicately placed basil leaf, and you should not allow yourself to leave without at least one piece. I don’t know where Portis managed to find British tomatoes this good, but I want their dealer’s number.

But like I said, there’s plenty of variation. In just a month I’ve seen Italian sausage used three or four ways, and lemon ricotta almost as many. Pizzas have appeared topped with beef shin ragu or pulled pork, pancetta paired with pineapple, and chanterelles with mozzarella. They’ve got a good line on mortadella too, which appears topped with a sprig of rocket, a blob of some soft cheese or another, and a good drizzle of olive oil. It’s these slightly more adventurous, produce-led slices that have routinely impressed me the most, so at Portis it definitely pays to branch out from your tomato-and-cheese staples.

In one of Portis’ most recent Instagram posts, Thomas details a few of the independent producers they work with, from Essex-made mozzarella to sustainable seaweed takeaway trays, seemingly in defence against complaints about pricing. I do rag on high prices from time to time on here, but in Portis’ case any complaint really does feel unfair. Slices are £5-6 each, but substantial for it. Two prove plenty for lunch, three only if you’re feeling ambitious.

And while every restaurant in town loves to crow about the quality of its ingredients, it’s in simple cases like this where that really shines through. With two or three toppings at a time, there’s nowhere to hide if they’re not up to snuff, but at Portis they’ve turned that into a strength. Everything they ever put on top of their pizza seems to impress, and if that means I’ve got to pay a fiver a slice, then I’ll do so gladly, two at a time, for as long as they’ll let me.