A husband-and-wife team are opening a new Italian Pinsa bar serving a wide range of food and drinks.

Klevi Petritaj and his wife Sara are working hard to bring the public of Bicester an authentic Italian experience with the opening – in the next few months – of their Rustica Bistrot venue on Pioneer Square.

The cafe will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, with a broad offering of traditional Italian ingredients like Burrata, Parma ham, mortadella and crudo, with the customer’s choice of croissants at breakfast, or toasted panini and focaccia bread at lunch.

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The main focus of the venue is its pizza. Pinsa pizza is a Roman way of preparing pizza dough, which entails the use of three different flours – wheat, rice and soy – to produce a light crunchy crust, which Mr Petritaj says is less filling than regular crust.

He said: “We wanted to open something different for the people of Bicester. Our customers can pop in for a quick morning cappuccino, or they can grab a croissant for breakfast.

“They’ll also be able to have lunch; whether they fancy a toasted panini or focaccia with authentic Italian ingredients, a slice of cake or our Pinsa pizza.

“Dinner guests can watch as we cook wonderful hand rolled and stretched pizzas in our pizza oven, sit with a glass of aperol spritz made fresh at the bar and enjoy our service.”

Mr Petritaj, who was born in Albania but grew up in northern Italy, said he hopes to open the cafe at 6am, and stay open until 10pm.

The venue will have one big bar which is split into breakfast, lunch and dinner sections, with alcoholic beverages on sale too.

Mr Petritaj said: “We will serve aperol spritz, and other Italian drinks including a list of Italian beers.

“We will have Italian coffees, croissants, deli products, cakes, paninis, sandwiches and focaccia bread, but our main product is our Pinsa pizza.

“Pinsa pizza is light and crunchy on the outside, and fluffy and soft on the inside.”

The 27-year-old hopes to open the venue in the next few months, but said he cannot give a specific date at this point.

The couple have done a lot of the background work and are now in talks with the landlord about installing the bar.

Mr Petritaj added: “It will be something different. Very broad ranging in what we offer. People can have something salty, something sweet, a coffee, an aperitif, an alcoholic drink, salad, and many other things.

“We look forward to welcoming people when we open our doors.”

 

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This story was written by Matthew Norman, he joined the team in 2022 as a Facebook community reporter.

Matthew covers Bicester and focuses on finding stories from diverse communities.

Get in touch with him by emailing: Matthew.norman@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @OxMailMattN1