Empire Building

Peter Evans Wants to Bring Aussie Italian to New York

Photo: Courtesy of Peter Evans

Peter Evans, the hunky Australian chef, TV personality, and outdoorsman who was judged to have the best pizza in the world in the New York Pizza Challenge two years ago (he assures us he was up against American and Italian pie makers there), is in town and looking for a restaurant space. He tells us he won’t settle on an exact concept until he finds the perfect digs, but it’ll be something along the lines of Hugo’s Bar Pizza, the pie lounge that he keeps in the grungy King’s Cross district of Sydney (it’s one of four restaurants he operates back home). His brother and business partner is hitting the pavement today and tomorrow, and hopefully won’t make the same mistake he did two years ago when he passed up the Boqueria Soho space because it was too narrow. So what exactly is Aussie pizza, anyway? Evans says his is prepared in a gas, conveyer-belt oven, with the freshest ingredients possible — “we don’t put anything on there that shouldn’t be on a pizza.” His crust is thin, but a little more biscuity than others. And it won’t fill you up. “Most of our clients are women,” he tells us. “So we don’t want to make them fat or have them leaving bloated.” Hmmm — can a pitch like that work ’round these parts?

Peter Evans Wants to Bring Aussie Italian to New York