Yard Sale x Patty & Bun

A few weeks ago I spotted a very intriguing piece on Twitter regarding a forthcoming collaboration between my favourite burger joint and one of my favourite pizza places. Fast forward to last weekend, and I clocked that they were having a pre-launch launch at Patty & Bun‘s test kitchen facility in London Fields. On my birthday. I sent a few messages back and forth – full disclosure here, I have provided playlists for Yard Sale and DJ’d at a yard party they had one Sunday while famed pizziaolo Anthony Falco was doing a guest residency for them – and they very kindly agreed to let me and a few close friends join them to sample the new additions.

I’m going to try my best to keep this review brief, as it was a very informal affair, food eaten standing up, ducking in and out of a rainy evening. But lets deal with the important stuff first, the ingredients.

Yard Sale’s end of the situation is the Smokey Robinson Pizza, with crumbled H.G Walter beef patty, caramelised onions, bacon and smokey P&B mayo with Fior Di latte mozzarella – basically a Smoky Robinson burger, on a pizza.

The ‘Holy Pepperoni’ Burger takes in a P&B burger patty, two types of Cobble Lane cured pepperoni (which they crisp off on the hot plate before adding to the mix), nduja mayo, Fior Di Latte Mozzarella, Yard Sale’s signature tomato base sauce, basil and rocket.

I took on the burger first, which rolls out across Patty & Bun for the next month. Regular readers may remember my rather scathing review of Honest Burgers’ poor effort at a pizza burger. But watching them prepare these burgers, I was immediately confident that they knew what they were up to. In typically P&B style, they were not shy about slathering loads of sauces on to the buns. Handing them over in their trademark waxed paper wrappers, I unburdened the burger of it’s clothing and immediately was struck by the delicious smell of the combination.

The first bite was confirmation of my suspicions – this is a really, really good burger. The crispy pepperoni added a crunch to the middle, the nduja a little heat, the basil some light freshness, the mozzarella was as melted as you’d hope (at one point giving that incredibly satisfying cheese stretch you always see on pizza adverts!), the patty itself was as juicy and pink as P&B always seem to be. There’s a certain tingling sensation I get in my mouth when I eat a really great steak or burger, I call it a mouthgasm, and this delivered!

Each ingredient brought something worthwhile to the party, I absolutely demolished it, and my friends all agreed that this was an absolute corker. I ended up having a 2nd burger later on before they shut up shop, and that was every bit as good. I firmly expect at some point to pay for a 3rd during the month that this special is on!

On to the pizza that Yard Sale will be selling – as mentioned, essentially the ingredients of P&B’s Smoky Robinson burger on a pizza. This one is a really interesting one – quite an unusual pizza, and it’s probably not for everyone as a result. But you know what, I am fully on board. I was curious to see how they dealt with the burger aspect, and in turns out they literally crumble bits of a patty on to the pizza, which are small enough to cook in the short time it spends in the pizza oven. The caramelised onion is reduced down far more than I’ve ever seen, and so sits well on a pizza, not being too moist, rather being a set of sticky little flavour bombs to add a note of sweetness every so often, amongst the savoury aspect of little burger nuggets and the bacon.

The most curious aspect is the smoky mayo that goes on top – this is where it will probably split the room to a degree. I’m intrigued as to what goes in this – it had a hint of mustard or chilli, it certainly added a heat note to the pizza, just I couldn’t quite put my finger on what exactly it was. I liked it, but it added quite an unusual flavour for a pizza – some may not get on with it I suspect. The base and tomato were as good as I’ve come to expect from Yard Sale, the delicious char on the crusts being right up my alley – sounds a silly thing to highlight, but makes a big difference in my opinion. It doesn’t rank with their best pizzas, and I marginally preferred the Falco special they did, but it’s still very good indeed, and well worth sampling.

So, all-in-all, a triumphant pair of specials. I don’t want anyone labouring under misapprehensions about my relationship with Yard Sale – I ate and drank for free last night, I’ve done paid work for them, I’ll be completely open about these facts. But there is no agenda here, I wasn’t brought in on the expectation I would write this, and if they were not up to muster I wouldn’t be doing so (maybe some will take exception to that, hey ho).

Simply put, the burger is possibly a classic, and the pizza, although probably not for everyone, is banging too.

Pizza Burger – 9/10

Burger Pizza – 8/10

Available until Tuesday 19th September 2017

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