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Ready for some hipster box-ticking? Yes? Okay, let’s go. Joe Public is an artisanal fast-food joint (tick), in a stools-only space (tick), that happens to be a former public loo (tickety-tick-tick)! Inside, there are two counters, one on the ‘wall side’, the other at the bar (sit here, there’s more legroom). I could go on: drinks menus scrawled on the Victorian white-tiled walls, cutlery kept in cleaned-up tins of chopped tomatoes, its ‘own brand’ Joe Public IPA. You get the idea.
It’s a US-style pizza joint and what comes out of the ovens will be a 20-inch pie. Twenty inches, incidentally, is huge. Forget bigger than a baby’s arm; we’re talking bigger than a grown-up’s arm. Which is precisely why you order them by the single slice: two to three is plenty. Toppings have a Stateside vibe: chilli-flecked slivers of pepperoni; fatty fennel-spiced sausage with mushroom and caramelised leeks; a classic margherita (a touch over-enthusiastic on the oregano, but generously cheesy). Bases are crunchy and thin and crispy – remember, this is a US-style joint – so if you’re a pizza purist in search of that unique Neapolitan-style crusty-plus-chewy dough, you’ll have to look elsewhere.
Joe Public will be a huge hit with the takeaway crowd (there are seats for 30 outside, plus a hatch, open till midnight, where you can order ‘to go’, and they even pump electroswing through speakers so you can sway while you wait). But at only £4 or £4.50 a slice, it makes a sit-down meal – albeit a high-speed one, best for a quick pit-stop – an absolute steal.