WE LOVE YOU, LITTLE FURNACE
Hafla’s top till girl and part-time blogger Becky B visits long-time friends Little Furnace on Smithdown Road, and sums up why they will forever be one of our favourites.
Hafla Hafla first met the Little Furnace boys up in Leeds, when we both had a spot at the street-food space of Trinity Kitchen way, way back. A beautiful friendship developed: from the crazy nights out after Trinity back when we were young and foolish, to Little Furnace’s Peter helping us tile our very first Baltic Market stand when the market first opened in June last year, and now, Hafla are over the moon to have our very own sauce named after us at the first Little Furnace restaurant on Smithdown!
After opening in February 2018 not far from where I live in student-favourite Smithdown Road, I finally went to visit on Friday to see how the restaurant has been going so far, to eat some of those delicious Neapolitan-inspired pizzas and, of course, to try the Hafla sauce. Now, I have proudly enjoyed my fair share of Little Furnace pizzas in my time, and every single one has been nothing short of non-biased perfection. The flavours are always immense, the cheese is always stringy, the dough is always light and fluffy, and there is nothing quite like watching (and smelling) your pizza being cooked right before your eyes in a little red wood-fired oven, but the pizzas at the restaurant
absolutely blew everything else out of the park! We chose the Lamb Hafla – couldn’t resist – and the vegetarian Garlic, Spinach & Mushroom Bianca, as well as three little ‘crust dip’ pots of Hafla sauce – come on, it’s named after us – and of course a pot of the Little Furnace Special sauce, for healthy good measure. Quite frankly, I could have chosen everything on the menu and I know I would have enjoyed it all: the menu is full of vegan and veggie-friendly items, from classics like the vegan Marinara, veggie Margherita, a Goat’s Cheese ‘n’ Chutney which I was extremely tempted by… to an array of incredible-sounding meaty and sea-food feasts.
The pizzas we had were both divine, and the words “best pizza I’ve ever had” may have slipped out of my mouth more than once, big statement – I know. When Little Furnace make beautiful rustic pizzas right in front of you in minutes it only adds to the experience. And perhaps most importantly, we LOVED the Hafla crust dip. It’s a mint and yoghurt spiced sauce “inspired by local food heroes Hafla Hafla”… we’re blushing! The Little Furnace Special dip is also a must-try, described as “a rich & intense garlic, oregano, tomato and onion sauce”, it was delightful. Helpfully, there is a deal where you can try all five of the different homemade dips for £3.50! All washed down with a Peroni (or two) in a glass bottle, and everyone knows it tastes better in a glass bottle, we truly had the best time. If you do one thing this week – visit Little Furnace, say hi to the lovely team and enjoy authentic Neapolitan pizzas without having to fork out for the flight. You won’t regret it!
We want to say a massive Hafla thank you to Peter and Ryan (and everyone at Little Furnace) for producing incredible pizzas every single time, for giving us the huge honour of our very own Hafla sauce, and for showing us how it’s done in terms of successfully going from street-food stand to permanent restaurant – we can’t wait for you to come and visit us when we soon make the same
move onto Lark Lane!