Famous for pasta, now he slings pie at this award-winning bar. What to order at Gemini
On the ground floor of a historic downtown skyrise, I was sipping a Japanese shochu cocktail from a plastic honey bear with a bushel of dill coming out its head like a chia pet. That's when the server brought out the sumac fried chicken wings.
According to the 12-page menu at Bitter & Twisted, the Bear Witness cocktail with yuzu marmalade and pink peppercorn syrup is "shaken with traumatic intent" before it's poured into the empty honey canister. Sounds serious, but that's not why I ordered it.
I chose it because of the bear. The Arizona-themed choose-your-own-adventure of a menu has so many different cocktails that it becomes downright overwhelming. After about the 30th description, I just started looking at the glass shapes pictured next to each item. Most were boring looking cups. This was a bear.
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The citrus and pepper notes may have given the Bear Witness the flavor of boozy cough syrup, but the cocktail was still a fun way to lighten up the mood.
Despite its whimsy, Bitter & Twisted is a serious drinking establishment, and is currently on the shortlist for best cocktail bar in the U.S. in the annual Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards. (Its sister bar, Little Rituals is also in the running for best hotel bar.)
But I wasn't there for the world renowned drinks. I was there for the food.
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This spring, owner Ross Simon leveled up Bitter & Twisted's food game by partnering with one of the hottest chefs in the Phoenix dining scene.
New Jersey native Racan Alhoch gained a cult following in 2019 when he started Saint Pasta, a food truck that's now located at The Pemberton in downtown Phoenix.
It's hard to say what the magic is, whether it's his East Coast sass on social media or his killer vodka sauce, but people will reportedly line up for two hours just for a tub of his rigatoni with snow peas or simple spaghetti pomodoro.
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Alhoch's new venture is Gemini Pizza, housed inside the art deco Luhrs building along with Bitter & Twisted, where he serves a menu of New York style pizzas and bar snacks inspired by his Syrian-American upbringing with a spicy merguez sausage with sumac and onion and a mean fattoush salad with crispy/fried pita bread.
In his signature style, the menu sports a warning: "Kitchen politely declines 'all' modifications. No ranch dressing and pineapple doesn't belong on pizza. Please be nice to your servers, it's the chef's fault."
The pizza is good, this salad is better
First the wings arrived, crackled and brown with a shimmery white dust that made them look like a pile of crystallized fossils dug up from somewhere in the Nevada desert. Despite their nuggety appearance, they were intensely crispy with a thick breading that had the faint tang of sumac and not much in the way of spices beyond that. They were addicting and I kept returning to them between bites of pizza.
Gemini has five pies on the menu, which is dominated by classics like a white pizza with ricotta and caraway seeds, a plain pie and a tomato with low moisture mozzarella for premium melting capacity.
I can't say they are my favorite pizza style, but the crust really did take me back to the neighborhood slice joints I visited during a recent trip to New York, and they aren't nearly as fluffy as some other so-called New York style pies you'll see in the Valley, nor as cheesy and greasy. They are rather restrained, with a slight springiness.
Pulled in by the "famous vodka sauce," I ordered a vodka pie, made with a vodka sauce base and the standard melted mozzarella.
It was enjoyable, but the toppings on the sausage pizza with sumac and red onion stole the pizza show. The smoky beef merguez — a spicy North African sausage — had an herbaceous note that played off the creamy bed of melted mozzarella.
In all honesty, though, I enjoyed the wings and the fabulous fattoush salad more than the pizza.
Made with ripped petals of romaine and fresh cherry tomatoes, cucumber and mint in a lemony garlic vinaigrette, the salad is the sleeper hit of the menu. Of course, the fried pita rounded it out and made it more filling, and the healthy sprinkle of sumac gave it a beautiful purple hue.
The bottom line? These are some serious interesting bar snacks
I'm not sure I'd come to a cocktail bar specifically for a salad, but my initial visit to Gemini left me curious to try more.
I regret not ordering the Syrian lazy cake, a no-bake chocolate number made from crumbled up tea biscuits and crushed middle eastern pistachios, which is similar to a dessert found in Italian and Portuguese cuisine that goes by the nickname chocolate salami due to its splotchy color palette.
Next time. And considering I've still got about 80 more cocktails on the menu to try, I've got plenty of excuses to return.
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Gemini Pizza
Where: Inside Bitter & Twisted Cocktail Parlour, 1 W. Jefferson St., Phoenix.
Hours: 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 4 p.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday.
Price: Snacks $10 to $16; pizzas $14 to $17; salads $13.
Details: 602-340-1924, bitterandtwistedaz.com.
Reach reporter Andi Berlin at amberlin@azcentral.com. Follow her on Facebook @andiberlin, Instagram @andiberlin or Twitter @andiberlin.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: A first look: Gemini Pizza in Phoenix's Bitter & Twisted cocktail bar
