Franck Pecol’s pizza place offers pricey but extremely tasty pies in the sort of muted, well lit and quintessentially French environment found in the restaurateur’s bistro and bar in the same lane. À côté (literally, “next door”), is a typically understated name from the man who already owns the adjacent Franck and Le Petit Franck, and the place keeps things extremely simple. There’s room for about a dozen diners at a long central table surrounded by low stools, plus a couple of smaller spaces in the window. Jazzy, loungey tunes play softly in the background, and in the back a wood fired pizza oven roars away while a single pizzaiolo kneads and tosses out pies to order. There’s no menu to pass around, just 10 Marseille-style pizzas, from a cheese and tomato (RMB80) up to an anchovy spéciale for RMB130, chalked up on a board. Seven are tomato based, the other three are tomato-less “blanches.” We tried the jambon and the champignon (both RMB90), and they arrived steaming hot from the wood-fired oven. The cheese-to-sauce ratio was excellent, with just enough cheese to hold together a thin, crispy base brimming with rich tomato sauce. Each was more than enough for one person, though slightly too small for two to share. Two between three people would work well if you tossed in a green salad (not on the menu but available to those who ask). There’s talk of expanding the menu in a month or two, but there may be no need. Pizza shouldn’t be elaborate or loaded with novelties like fruit and duck breast. No chance of that here, just traditional pies made exceptional by the quality of their ingredients.
Reviewed in March, 2011.
Our rating: 4/5