Popular pizza chain extending its reach in Liverpool

A Manchester-based pizza chain is expanding its reach in Liverpool with a new opening late next month.

Rudy’s Neapolitan Pizza, part of Manchester’s Mission Mars Group, has announced plans to open a second venue within the city, at a former Sainsbury’s store in the city centre.

The location is in the city’s thriving independent food and beverage district, Bold Street, and complements its first Liverpool restaurant in Castle Street which opened in 2018.

Rudy’s is currently recruiting for a range of jobs at the latest site, the ninth in the chain’s family of restaurants which began with the opening of the group’s first location in Ancoats, Manchester, in 2015.

Positions range from pizzaioli, front-of-house team members and a management team.

Earlier this year the business revealed that it was expanding its portfolio with a spring opening in Stockton Heath, Warrington, on the site of a former Barclays Bank building on Walton Road.

The new pizzeria will occupy 3,000 sq ft, providing 120 covers.

Sainsbury’s temporarily closed its convenience store at the top of Bold Street in the first lockdown last year, and announced earlier this year that the site, which was popular with the city centre student population, would close for good.

Rudy’s says its unique selling point is its authentic Neapolitan recipe, created by chefs from the Italian city of Naples.

Roy Ellis, founder of Mission Mars, said: “95% of our kitchen staff are Italian, and of that 95%, 90% are from Naples.”

The dough is made fresh on site every day and cooked in wood fired ovens for just 60 seconds, all in accordance with Neapolitan pizza tradition, leaving it soft and floppy with a leopard patterned cornichon (crust).

Rudy’s dough is made using Caputo ‘00’ flour which ferments for at least 24 hours, alongside the best quality ingredients imported twice a week from Naples, including San Marzano tomatoes grown on fields next to Mount Vesuvius, and Fior di Latte mozzarella.

Rudy’s Pizza was recently named the fifth best pizza in Europe by Big Seven and is currently the ‘No.1 Pizzeria in the UK’ on Tripadvisor.