THEY claim to make Southampton's finest pizzas and are also passionate about people and the planet.
Every day secret recipe fresh dough is kneaded, topped and baked with love in a stone-fired oven inside the 1820s Bedford Place cottage occupied since 2018 by POPSI'S.
Not only do the independent eatery serve up delicious handcrafted pizzas made from scratch, but they support a number of local charities and initiatives and have great green credentials.
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David Hearth, who opened POPSI'S with business partner Chris Hammond nearly four years ago, told the Daily Echo: "We make Southampton’s finest pizzas! We blend pizza styles, but each one is made with love and care for our loyal customers.
"Our secret recipe dough is made using a long fermentation process, a mix of ambient fermentation, and a long cold fermentation over 48 hours. This process allows nature to reduce the gluten content considerably and still taste amazing. Our pizzas are proudly not uniformly round, each one is handcrafted and beautifully unique - because that’s how pizza should be.
"Don’t miss bites, our best-selling side dishes. These little dumplings of gorgeousness are cheese wrapped dough balls with pesto, garlic or Roquito peppers, all served with a marinara sauce for dipping. They’re so popular that we regularly sell out.
This is traditional home cooking, from scratch, nothing frozen and no shortcuts. We also specialise in creating our vegan ‘meats’ from scratch so that everyone has an excellent choice of pizza to suit their needs.
"Not only are we a great place to enjoy pizza, but we care about our environmental impact and are proud to give back to the local area. We’ve supported Southampton’s local LGBTQ+ youth charities and school fundraisers for many years to support our youngest customers to live and learn in a brighter city.
"We’ve used renewable energy for our electricity since we opened. We use packing made from recycled materials which are fully compostable and plant trees across the world to offset our CO2 emissions and help provide jobs in rural communities. We also plant a tree for every special ‘Green One’ pizza we sell. So far, 631 trees have been planted, offsetting a massive 302 tonnes of CO2."
The POPSI'S menu includes a number of pizzas that you just can't find anywhere else, except craft beer bar Beards & Boards just up the road, which also serves all their delights.
The cosy eatery was majorly impacted by Covid closures, but pivoted to focus on deliveries and takeaways, as well as creating pizza meal kits and a free meal scheme for NHS workers.
A Crowdfunding scheme helped to keep them afloat.
"We are hopeful about the future and grateful for the generosity of our loyal customers," David added.
- POPSI'S is our trader of the week. If you'd like us to feature your local business, click on the link below or email lorelei.reddin@dailyecho.co.uk
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