Israel’s food news

The pink-purple bloom catches you even before the escalators reach Shaul HaMelech Boulevard. One moment you are at the light rail station, and the next you are greeted by this dramatic look, so you cannot blame your mind for drifting straight abroad. Who would have believed we would merit something like this here.

A few dozen meters later, and no more than a minute or two of walking between wearers of such uniforms (Kirya soldiers) and others (the lawyers of the court), you enter Link Hotel, go down the stairs and receive a pizzeria. This is a sentence that deserves to be dwelled on in its own right, since there is no sane Waze route that would invent something similar, but together with the train and together with the purple-pink, you first and foremost have to sit down, preferably with a beer.

Welcome to Zutt – a basement pizza with penthouse intentions that also does room service and also Wolt delivery. That, Herzl did not foresee. Nor did King Saul.

The newest addition to the temptation family at the urban hotel of the Dan chain dove headfirst into a space they did not know what to do with, and had almost despaired of. There is a fairly active hub here with skilled laptop users who carefully guard this worthwhile secret, and the rest of the square footage was regularly used for the place’s breakfast, and nothing more. Now, when the meal itself has been upgraded, and the entire complex has received an injection of energy, they decided to go for pizza.

It was an uncalculated decision, of course, one that involves imagination and fantasy and an adventurous spirit – perhaps the last things one might associate with a veteran and respected hotel group, but definitely the first things one might associate with Aviv Berkovich, the CEO. Around the world, the scene of bakeries and patisseries that have opened in hotel lobbies is now blazing, but pizza, it seems to me, still gets slightly strange looks when people try to connect it. Here, somehow, with a lot of pushing and a lot of bulldozing, it simply works.

Is it supposed to work? Clearly not. Are you dealing with what is supposed to be while you are shouting at a giant video game console from the eighties as you wait for your tray? Even more clearly not. Does it make sense for you to return to the street, and to life, after you have spent a tasty and almost New York-like hour here, heaven forbid? Absolutely not. Absolutely absolutely not.

The menu is meant to provide a street feeling even on the level below the street itself. The walls were already speaking graffiti, and the sun manages to penetrate inside at various and strange angles, so they went here for simple and sharp and fast and unpretentious, and then invested in each of those elements to justify the entire move. Surprise, the investment pays off.

It begins with Daniel Borovik, a man who loves food and loves to make food and equally dislikes talking, and especially talking about himself. He insisted on homemade dough, and through that insistence established a dedicated section in the existing hotel kitchen. Foundations were shaken, changes were implemented, and the decision distinguishes and differentiates, especially in a world where many pizzerias buy their dough. Both routes are worthy, of course, but here they chose to work harder, and that is a choice that should be appreciated.

The result is eight pizzas (NIS 64–78) in a medium-large size and on a range that starts with a classic Margherita and very quickly breaks to the side. Not in a wild descent to the margins, but with the wisdom of a veteran driver who has already traveled this road, and is still happy to be behind the wheel.

The dough itself settles at a relatively medium thickness, and manages to create both airy internal bubbles and a successful crust, firm, with personality. Fold, lean forward, and you are set. There is a marinara with garlic and capers and arugula leaves, whites on a béchamel sauce base (with leek and goat cheese, with potatoes and a little gorgonzola and with mushrooms that you usually do not see on just any pizza), one that happily highlights salty anchovies and a chili-honey pizza with tomato sauce, mozzarella and bite-sized pieces of pickled jalapeño. It is sweet and it is spicy, and I am not talking only about the pizza.

The envelope beyond the pizzas also manages to surprise, and to produce several strong moments of “I did not expect” exactly at the points where your expectations have already aligned with the norm.

That means only five starters (NIS 28–58), which know why you came but are sure you will want something else alongside the thing – strongly seasoned roasted corn, for example, tomato salad and Caesar salad with a proper sauce and also a wonderful, truly wonderful, play of a mozzarella-anchovy-tomato plate. On the face of it, a cliché of “the simple things in life” that almost never receives the respect and attention it deserves. In practice, here, the tomatoes are peeled and the anchovies are fleshy and the mozzarella is soft and almost creamy, and everything waits patiently in an appetite-enhancing display case – for assembly, for serving and for the moment when olive oil will drip onto your shirt and actually make you smile.

After that, of course, a giant and thick tiramisu, genuinely homemade, and also a Nutella calzone with the exact same dough, and whipped cream on the side, in the familiar and beloved dance of guilt pangs and let the diet suffer.

It is not clear what else will happen at Link, and what surprises Berkovich will summon for us. He is already building on a new and worthwhile spa, and through it closing the excellent triangle whose base is a worthwhile café (the wonderful Shaula) and worthwhile pizza. These points compose not only abstract geometric shapes, but an actual center, which draws people and draws passersby and returns hungry and thirsty diners for another professional round – from the barista, from the pizzaiolo, and in general.

Since it opened, Zutt has managed to establish itself among Wolt orderers and office neighbors, and truly stars among the hotel’s own guests, since there is nothing more ideal than such a steaming takeaway, straight to the room. Its challenge, of course, will be to make everyone lightly skip down the stairs and arrange in their heads that sometimes there are also such things. Light rail, pink bloom, happy basement pizza. Here, let us believe.