New Pizza Restaurant for Wildebeest Team

A few days ago, James Iranzad, owner of Abigail's Party posted a photo on Facebook of a room under construction with the cryptic message 'Here we go again..." tagging in co-owner of Wildebeest, Josh Pape. The big news? It's not a Wildebeest Mk2: in a surprise move Iranzad and his partner Pape are opening another restaurant— in Kerrisdale. Iranzad spoke with Eater by phone to tell us the story:

Where is it and what will it be?
It's in Kerrisdale; I grew up there and it was a cool opportunity, a south-facing corner restaurant. It's the old Mac Shack place; it was only open for 18 months and it was in amazing condition. I love a corner restaurant and this has loads of windows. It's licensed for 60 but we're looking at around 50 seats.

What kind of food are you planning?
It's going to be a pizzeria—open for lunch, dinner and weekend brunch.

Pizza? You have previous experience with that, right?
Yes, I was there for the good years of Hells Kitchen between 2002-2009. This is going to be more of a Neapolitan pizza though, but not the certified kind, we're not going to worry about the dogma and we won't have a wood-fired oven. Like some of my favourite pizza places in town, like Nook, this will come from a deck oven.

So I have to ask, why Kerrisdale? Do you think it's the new Gastown?
(Laughs) We have great sushi there - I love Ajisai and the dim sum is good but we're super-limited there for full-service dining. It's what the neighbourhood needs and everyone loves pizza, right? Of course, we'll have a decent cocktails and beverage programme too, which will make it well worth the cab ride for people to come to.

Do you have a name yet?
We're tossing a few around but nothing's decided yet. But we're looking at a June 1 opening so we'll let you know soon.
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