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"Honestly, it's ridiculous," says Nate Appleman about the feverish hype surrounding Bowery pizzeria Pulino's, a blockbuster mash-up between the James Beard–winning chef and super-restaurateur Keith McNally. The former A16 chef, whose love affair with Italy began with a six-month stint in Florence in 1999, will be firing up over a dozen thin-crust, wood-fired pies—not Neapolitan per se, but pies partly inspired by "my [Midwest] childhood, going to the local pizza place or the bowling alley." Think housemade salami with chiles; beef meatball; and crisp porchetta with fennel, tomato and red onion. Picking up on a meaty theme? Appleman, an avowed carnivore, breaks down his own livestock in-house, sourced from Missouri's Newman Farm. We rang him up at 8 a.m. for a quick chat—he was already in the kitchen, in the thick of the day's frenzy.
There was a lot of speculation as to what you would do after you won the James Beard Award last year [for Rising Star Chef of the Year]. What made you zero in on this particular project with Keith?
I came to New York without this project in mind. I came here without a job. The first day I met [Keith], we talked for hours, and he offered me a job. It was a no-brainer. Number one, because it was Keith. I could’ve gone out and done something on my own. I guess I’m a long-term kind of guy, and I feel like being able to hook up with somebody like Keith McNally—that's something that could last a lifetime.
The hype surrounding Pulino's—pretty intense.
Honestly, it’s ridiculous. The combination I guess of Keith and myself is kind of a unique thing. To be 100 percent honest, we’re cooking pizza. Pizza is so common with the American man or woman that it can never be transcending. It’s not like talking about sea urchins and trying that for the first time. That shit would change your life.
So this pretty much is your reality check: "People, get a grip—it’s just pizza."
Yeah, pretty much. Luckily we’re doing much more than pizza.
Ever seen this kind of attention lavished on a restaurant?
Restaurants that generally get attention like this end up being huge failures. Whether it’s because the hype is built up so much and people expect so much that when they come in they’re just having pizza. I don’t wanna just count this place as just a pizzeria. But that is one of our main focus. At the same time, we are butchering all the meats in-house. Doing, you know, pretty unique things.
How would you describe your take on pizza?
I think [Adam Kuban, from Slice] nailed it when he said it’s a little mix of everything: a mix of Neapolitan, a mix of New Haven, and a mix of Midwest bar pizza. And honestly, it’s like the pizza from my childhood. Whether it’s the pizza place or a bowling alley and getting thin-crust pizza.
Let's talk about the menu a bit.
Well for breakfast, I shall tell you, it’s pretty unique. The setup of the restaurant is, I have a kitchen upstairs and a kitchen downstairs. The kitchen upstairs just has two wood-fire ovens, that’s it. But I’m only cooking the food for the restaurant in the top kitchen and using downstairs as prep. So we have no burners. We just have two wood-fire ovens, and I’m cooking an entire breakfast menu out of it. And that carries out through the day: lunch and dinner. Everything is coming out of the wood-fire ovens.
Which pizzas should we keep an eye out for?
Two for me. One is the salame picante, which is a house-made pepperoni with olives, mozzarella, oregano and chili. That, that to me is kind of iconic American because it’s pepperoni. Like I said before, it’s taking what I consider bowling-alley pizza and elevating it. Also, the porchetta pizza. We do tomato, fennel, sliced porchetta, and then we take the skin of the porchetta and we get it really crispy, chop it up, and then sprinkle it over the top of the pizza.
And you're butchering your own livestock in-house...
Yes. They come from the Midwest—Newman Farm. I have a great relationship with Mark Newman and his wife. I’ve been to their house, I’ve stayed on their property. I’ve been through a slaughter with them. It’s just a really good relationship. It’s one that I had in California that I kind of brought here.
And you'll be doing burgers too, I hear.
That’s part of the in-house butchery, too. You know, I figure if I do 30 burgers a night, it will help alleviate a lot of the ground meat that I’m going to have. So every night at midnight, we’re gonna offer 30 burgers. And when the 30 burgers are out, we’re done.
How big are the burgers? Any bells and whistles?
They’re 8 ounces. You know, I’m a very simple guy. I like that down-and-dirty diner food. Actually, I do not like chef-driven burgers. I don’t like that big patty and all the things that you can’t fit into your mouth. I like a thin patty, cooked on the griddle. I cook the onions right on the griddle with the burgers. And doing it with white cheddar, mustard and a potato bun. That’s gonna be pretty much the only thing we’re serving which is not coming out of the wood-fire oven.
You're gonna have quite the crowd at midnight …
Well, that’s the idea.
Photo by Melissa Hom
