5 Places to Celebrate National Cheese Pizza Day in Style

Hold onto your hats and try to contain your mouth-frothing excitement as the day we have been putting red crosses on our calendar all year for has FINALLY arrived - National Cheese Pizza Day. I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you that this most celebrated day falls on Monday 5th September, right between National Macadamia Nut Day and Coffee Ice Cream Day. Ignore the heathens calling it another pointless national day; this is National Cheese Pizza Day for goodness' sake, a day that celebrates all that is good in life - creamy dairy and stodgy carbs. Unfortunately a royal parade and Take That reunion tour hasn’t been organised for this year’s celebrations but we’ve pooled together our greatest minds to come up with this list of 5 brilliant places to spend the day, if you’re not too exhausted after National Welsh Rarebit Day on Saturday that is… 

1. For dancing, jazz and live music pizza at Old Street Records, Shoreditch

Music is an integral part of any celebration and Old Street Records have an impressive roster of live bands, DJs and jazz nights to soundtrack your pizza fiesta. Located in Shoreditch, the bar serves stone-baked pizza including the classic margherita and quattro formaggi, which any Italian speaker will know means a hella lot of cheese. Get there between 5-8pm to raise two glasses for the price of one to the glorious cheese pizza gods.

Old Street Records in Shoreditch

The Quattro Stagioni pizza at Old Street Records.

2. For an artistic cheese pizza at Dream Bags Jaguar Shoes

What is the meaning of life? Why are we here? How will I possibly be able to prepare a fitting tribute for National Cheese Pizza Day? These are just a few of the philosophical questions I have pondered while cramming a spicy pepperoni pizza into my mouth at 4am on a Saturday morning. Seemingly philosophy, art and pizza are excellent bedfellows, making Dream Bags Jaguar Shoes an ideal destination for Monday. The venue hosts six-week artist residencies with the walls covered in local art. Plus the food is delicious, created by pizza giants Amici Miei who uses produce from Sicily to get an authentic flavour.

Dream Bags Jaguar Shoes

Some of the art work that decorates Dream Bags Jaguar Shoes.

3. For a classy Mayfair Pizza at Mayfair Pizza Co.

For a touch of class and sophistication head to Mayfair Pizza Co., a two-storey restaurant hidden away in Lancashire Court. It’s the kind of place where truffle oil is thrown about willy nilly, where pizza is eaten with a knife and fork and where you most certainly do not dip your crusts in garlic aioli. When you’re done with the main course, finish with a sweet pizza such as a nutella calzone with marshmallows. Despite being in London's most fashionable postcode, it’s alright if you haven’t spent all year ferreting away your wages into an ISA for National Cheese Pizza Day, Mayfair Pizza Co is *whispers* an affordable Mayfair restaurant.

Mayfair Pizza Co.

Pizza, salad and a Nutella calzone at Mayfair Pizza Co. 

4. Ping Pong Pizza at The Bat and Ball, Stratford

DJs, ping pong and damn tasty pizza - if you fancy your celebrations a little more fun then The Bat and Ball is the place for you. The Stratford venue has 12 ping pong tables to challenge your friends or fellow cheese pizza devotees to a high intensity game. This is East London, so beer is obviously craft and from some brilliant breweries such as Beavertown. But it’s the pizza you came for, and you made the right choice my friend. Fired-up and made by Well Street Pizza, which uses Neapolitan techniques, the food here has that genuine Italian flavour.

Bat and Ball

Play ping pong, drink craft beer and eat Neapolitan pizza at The Bat and Ball. 

5. Locally sourced pizza at Lardo

Can you have a pizza list that doesn’t feature Hackney favourite Lardo? Their pizza oven is the Godfather of all pizza ovens, covered in tiny mirrors and emulating a giant disco ball - a design all cooking equipment should follow. The food doesn’t get much fresher than here, with the dough baked on site and meat coming from British farms. The pizza menu is split into two; ‘rosso’ comes with a tomato sauce base, or ‘bianca’ which is without - get your hard cheese hit with the broccoli, swiss chard, gorgonzola and pine nut pizza. 

Lardo

Margherita pizza at Lardo in Hackney.