As their SoBo fine-dine The Table celebrates a decade, founders Gauri Devidayal and Jay Yousuf have now introduced a pizza deli that whips up something for everyone, with 40 toppings, three bases and six sauces
Caramelised onion and goats' cheese pizza
Holding one’s fort for a decade in an unpredictable city like ours with an avante-garde, cuisine-agnostic approach, while surviving an all-consuming pandemic, is no cake walk. So, when we ask Gauri Devidayal what’s been her biggest takeaway while running SoBo-based fine-dine The Table for 10 years, she shares that it’s teamwork and consistency. And it is this mantra that has helped the restaurateur dish out a new pizza brand called Mag St Toppings, that’s young, fresh and yet, offers a slice of Food Matters’ ever-dependable consistency.
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Chargrilled vegetables and rosemary chicken pizza
Devidayal shares that the past year has been such a roller-coaster ride that it didn’t hit her, and husband-co-founder Jay Yousuf until recently that they were nearing the milestone year. “It’s been an encouraging and great journey,” she notes. Like their other brands, the pizza deli, that’s based out of their space in Colaba, stemmed from the couple’s own cravings: “Pizzas were missing from our repertoire. We felt that in SoBo, where most of our brands are based, really good pizza was coming from restaurants, and hence, at high price points. There was a gap between good-quality pizza and affordable pricing which is associated with big chains. We wanted to hit that space.”
Slice of chocolate s’mores pizza
In the lockdown, pizza was one of the most-ordered dishes, with a popular food aggregator app reporting orders rocketing from 4.5 lakh in May 2020, to over 17 lakh in November. But in a slowly saturating market, Mag St Toppings stands out with the promise of an array of 40-plus farm-fresh toppings, including everything from dairy-free mozzarella and malai chicken to chorizo sausages and marinated cherry tomatoes, six sauces including béchamel and cilantro pesto marinara, and three kinds of bases — thick, thin and the lockdown hit, sourdough. “Jay and I always feel that the pizzas that are available around us come in set combinations; there’s usually something you either don’t want or that’s amiss. We wanted to offer DIY pizzas. From sauces and toppings to bases, and health-and-Jain-friendly options, there’s a lot of choice. We also have chef’s specials,” she adds.
Garlic bread, cheese and cheese jalapeño dips and Bloody Mary, orange margarita and Piña Colada mixers
The 12-inch pizzas arrive in cute, bright pink boxes — a pleasant departure from the ubiquitous white, red, black and yellow ones. The co-owner remarks the pink sets the deli apart from their other, “more serious” brands. The boxes also come with re-heating instructions. The thick-crust caramelised onion and goats’ cheese pizza (R650), and thin-crust chargrilled vegetables and rosemary chicken pizza (R700) are accompanied by small containers of chilli and garlic-infused oils. Despite travelling halfway across the city, and not re-heating them at first, the crust isn’t chewy. The sweetness of caramelised onions in the vegetarian pizza is a delicious match for the earthy tartness of the goat cheese; it’s something we’d recommend even if you’re inclined to meatier offerings.
Devidayal and Yousuf
True to its name, the toppings in the chicken pizza are generous and flavoursome in every bite, although we’d have liked our base slightly less smoky. The mozzarella garlic bread (R225) is cotton soft, but it’s the cheese and the jalapeño cheese dips (both R25) that elevate it. The dense jalapeño one is a real keeper.
To wash all this down, the deli offers in-house mixers — Bloody Mary, Piña Colada and orange margarita (R330), as well as non-alcoholic drinks. The real surprise for us — and high on the comfort quotient — though, is the paper-thin, crunchy chocolate s’mores pizza (R650). With a gooey chocolate spread, stringy smoked s’mores and juicy berries, it’s the stuff dream pizzas are made of.
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