We meet Blitz Pizza founder Dávid Liptay upon the soft opening of Blitz KERT in the neon-lined courtyard of the Electrotechnical Museum deep in the party zone.
Dávid Liptay named his brand of pizzas after a car when he decided to give up snowboarding career and any academic aspirations for the pizza shovel. He used to make pizzas for his friends and at parties – the idea to start baking for a wider audience slowly started to develop in his mind, in the form of food truck at first, which is where 'Blitz' came into the picture.
Although the food truck never came to fruition, Dávid was asked to offer his treats to revellers at panoramic hangout spot Pontoon, which was just coming into its own as the party spot of the moment.
The hype extended to Blitz Pizza, and the next stage in their successful journey was to set up camp at a restaurant – even if it wasn’t their own.
Many still remember the popular Blitz Konyha. This step proved a highly beneficial experience for the team, and as Dávid and his wife Anna Baráth explain, they learned a lot from working at an actual eatery, rather than just dishing out pizzas by the bar. Blitz Konyha didn’t last, but Pontoon still offers their pizzas all summer. To illustrate how essential this spot became though, Blitz held a new-wave pizza and natural-wine festival in October 2019, in collaboration with various other trendy pizzerias.
“We belong to the second stream of the local new-wave pizza movement, breaking away from the restaurant tradition, and making pizza the focus. This was started by Igen, and subsequent venues followed their pattern of starting out with Neapolitan-style pizzas, and diverging into a unique and personal approach, like Digó, Manu, Igen and ourselves. I didn’t want to hop on the Neapolitan bandwagon, because I don’t like to stick to specific styles or categories – I always stick to making our own pizzas. I don’t insist on strictly using all Italian ingredients, only the best, but I see no problem in putting good-quality Hungarian smoked sausages on my pizzas. We don’t see each other as competition with the other pizza venues, so if I run out of firewood, I can just run over to Zoli (Zoltán Papp, the founder of Digó), who is basically our neighbour. I think that the new-wave pizza places share the same goals, and that’s why the pizza festival was such a great event," says Dávid.
The founders were kept busy before Blitz KERT came into the picture – they joined the outdoor street-food spot Karaván this spring, but had to shut up shop because of the virus. During quarantine, they delivered Blitz Pizza dough to be prepared at home for those wanting to bake their own pizzas. Last summer, they also started baking at the Hétkert pub. They always kept Blitz Kert in mind, a place where not only for delicious pizzas, but other cold and oven-baked dishes as well.
“The oven has always been a big thing for me, ever since I started organising various pop-up gastro events across the country. We have a large oven here, that I think should not only be used for baking pizzas, but for creating other summer dishes as well,” says Dávid.
“We didn’t want to be a party hub,” Anna points out, “at least not the kind that you usually find in this district. As people reach their later twenties, they start looking for places that serve refined foods and drinks, with light and pleasant music to allow for a little small talk or pleasant conversation, instead of drinking and partying”.
The importance of wine when it comes to Blitz was already demonstrated at the pizza festival, and is just as relevant now. Dávid says that there are quite a few parallels between Blitz Pizza and natural wines, as they also use wild yeast and care about following a fixed set of rules. Natural wine bottles are filled with a liquid created according to a technique dating back 150 years, without being affected by standards concerning yeast or pesticide, or preparing the finished product.
The pizza menu says everything you need know about how much Dávid and his team care about standards – they put their passion into baking unique varieties. The only traditional item on the list is a Margherita they magyarise into ‘Margit’. The seven permanent pizza options will be completed with seasonal delicacies, resulting in a wider selection than the one found at Pontoon.
The Spring Break pizza (2,290 HUF) makes its return from Blitz Konyha, with a mouthwatering combination of mascarpone, speck ham, provolone cheese and green onions, but the perfectly named Cheesus (2,490 HUF) will also be available, offering flavours of taleggio, gorgonzola, mozzarella and sun-dried tomatoes. The wonderfully deviant Hungarian version, Quasi (2,890 HUF) is topped with sausage from Újkígyós, red onions and pecorino. The summer’s ultimate pizza pinnacle, Marrakesh (2,690 HUF), comprises fried bell peppers, chives and goats’ cheese, with a touch of harissa chili-pepper sauce, cooled with lemon zest. It’s incredibly tasty, with exciting and distinctive flavours.
While focus at Blitz KERT falls on pizzas, but other curious items also make it to the table. Among the cold dishes, you can find burrata (1,590 HUF), cheese and sausage platters (1,290 HUF each), as well as salads. Hot dishes are all made in the oven, just like the juicy aubergine parmigiana (1,290 HUF), the soft and simple the cauliflower from the oven (1,290 HUF), sprinkled with Blitz oil and Maldon salt, and Blitz potatoes (990 HUF), topped off with dill sour cream.
In addition to the food, there is a serious wine selection, with a strong emphasis on natural wines. You can also choose from several types of so-called orange wine, ie made from white grapes kept on the skin. More traditional wines also feature, of course, meaning that Blitz KERT should be one of the places to be this summer.
Blitz KERT
District VII. Kazinczy utca 21
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Open: Thur-Sat 6pm-midnight
