Make sure this Halloween is all about treats, not tricks, by visiting Pizza Geeks’ permanent residency at cocktail and whisky bar, Cask Smugglers, on Waverley Mall Rooftop. The restaurant and bar have collaborated to create a creepy Halloween-themed menu with a spooky cocktail, available on October 30 and 31.
As far as the food list goes, expect autumnal ingredients. Being a fan of pumpkins is a necessity.
“We have designed a special Halloween-themed menu to celebrate the occasion with all of our favourite seasonal ingredients”, says Matthieu Lantoine, the Pizza Geeks manager at their Cask Smugglers location. “Italian pizzerias including ourselves have been working with crema di zucca - a pumpkin tomato base - for years. For us, the seasoning is very important in all of our pizzas and it must be just right. For that weekend we will use cinnamon and other seasonal vegetables and spices.”
As well as two starters - Chucky the Goat (goat’s cheese on toast, marinated olives and mixed leaves) and Devil’s Poison (butternut, carrot and pumpkin soup, with Scooby Snacks garlic and olive bread), there are two pizzas on the special menu. Expect the Little Shop of Horrors tribute that is Feed me Seymour, with the crema de zucca base, as well as mozzarella, potatoes, roasted pumpkin, pumpkin seeds, onion and spinach.
Or, if you’re feeling bloodthirsty, there’s a meaty option, The Hannibal, which is topped by crema di zucca, black pudding, chorizo, roasted pumpkin and its seeds.
Unfortunately, there is no nice chianti. Instead, Cask Smugglers have made a matching cocktail. It has a Stephen King It theme and is called Red Balloon, with a mixture of Maker’s Mark, Chambord, grenadine and lemon. We all float down here and you might too, if you drink too many.
Pudding is Krueger’s pie - pumpkin pie with ice-cream. Or, if you’re sick of pumpkin, there are other sweet things - a vegan take on brownie with vanilla-ice cream, Captain Planet, or the non vegan version of this cake, Radagast the Brownie.
All the themed names are typical for this Dalry Road pizzeria which opened a second branch, not including their Cask Smugglers residency, on Commercial Street earlier this year.
