Pizzeria in Brussels

They opened the premises before they were completely finished, but decided that in any case there was no point in waiting. They thought about the name for a while as a family. While they were thinking, one of them looked around and remarked: “Obviously, the first customers will have to put up with the place as it is” and the name stuck.

The family, precisely. Mamma Antonia first of all, always in the kitchen making incredibly big and delicious pizzas, and pasta dishes so fragrant that even the saints of the nearby church of Altitude 100 give in to temptation and, invisible, come down from the altars to eat them in secret. Mamma Antonia is the only one who sees them, but she says nothing … Then papa Enrico, tireless, doing the shopping every morning at dawn, helping mamma in the kitchen and directing, invisible but with a hundred eyes, following everything that goes on without being seen. And finally the children, Sandro and Sergio, two big fellows who seem to have stepped out of a Fellini film, jet-black hair, ink-dark eyes, solid and sturdy bodies, in the dining room taking bookings, serving, chatting a little with customers to make them feel at home.

Feeling at home, that is the secret of their success! Just like in Fasano, their home village in Puglia, in the south of Italy, flooded with sun and light, where mamma Antonia learned from the local women to make pizzas that plates cannot hold because they are so big (have you measured them? 38 centimetres in diameter!), unlike the prices, which are very “contained”. Because in the south people are not very rich and want to eat well while spending little, just like at “Cosi com’é”. In short, they brought their traditions to Altitude 100 and “Cosi com’é” or “As it is” now means rather: “As in Italy, at our place, so here, for you”.

And have you noticed on the walls and on the sand-coloured windows of the dining room those strange constructions that look like giant pine cones? Those are the Trulli of Alberobello, a village a stone’s throw from Fasano. They brought that back too (well, not quite the Trulli but their representations); ancient characteristic buildings with roofs made of limestone slabs simply laid on top of each other in concentric circles that narrow until they close the conical vault. There are more than a thousand of them there, forming a village unique in the world that seems drawn by a cheeky child.

And the menu! More than 30 types of pizza: there is something for every taste. If you look closely, next to the classic names: Sicilienne, Napolitaine, Capri, there are some curiously mysterious ones; Laurence, Savelletri… These are the names of customers who asked for a special pizza with particular ingredients and the pizza ended up bearing their name. Try it yourself, maybe one day you will have your name next to the better-known one of Margherita, the queen who was the first to appreciate pizza… And maybe you will become famous too!

GAIO PAOLO