When Covid shut down the handball league in 2020, Omer Simon didn’t imagine it would lead him to open a pizza chain. But here he is, five years later, opening a fourth branch of Pizza X – this time in Rishon Lezion.
The story began when Simon, a Premier League handball player, found himself at home with plenty of free time. He researched, learned, experimented and fermented dough, invented intriguing toppings and combinations. First his friends tasted them, then he began selling to residents of Modi’in, and eventually opened a branch there. After two years he reached Tel Aviv with two branches, and now – Rishon Lezion.
An old center coming back to life
The new branch opened in the Heichal Hatarbut complex – an iconic and old center that the city’s millennial generation grew up on. The design is colorful and wild: A wild jungle full of greenery, huge totems and colorful graffiti bursting across the walls.
The choice of a location outside the bustling Rothschild area is intentional. “I wanted a place where people can come in flip-flops and pajamas, or all dressed up after a night out, and sit on comfortable couches for pizza and a beer at reasonable prices,” Simon explains.
What’s special about the pizzas?
The recipe remains the same: Dough fermented for 96 hours, quality mozzarella, San Marzano tomato sauce, homemade jams and wild toppings. On the menu are pizzas like “The Crazy Piglet” with bacon jam, pepperoni, bacon and Saint-Maure; “Don’t Get Confused” with pesto cream sauce, onion jam, Saint-Maure and pineapple; and “The Four Troublemakers” with bacon jam, beef shoulder, bacon and pepperoni.
Alongside the pizzas there are fresh handmade pastas, starters, salads and desserts – everything prepared on site.
Brunch, a pink fridge and a new dessert
The big innovation in the new branch is brunch served between 9:00 and 14:00. On the menu: “Frita Kahlo” – fried Neapolitan dough with yogurt cream, two sunny-side-up eggs, pickled onion and mint, fried Parmesan balls, “Cloud Scramble” with ricotta, cream cheese and Parmesan, and San Marzano shakshuka with focaccia made from Pizza X’s dough.
But the element that steals the show is the locked pink refrigerator near the counter. When it opens in front of the diner, a light show and angelic music begin – and inside, the new dessert is revealed: A decadent bread pudding.
“The advantage of the toppings and combinations”
“In Rishon there are good pizzas. Pizza X is excellent and its advantage is in the special toppings and combinations that don’t exist in the city,” says Simon. “We have exceptional design, a bold and energetic atmosphere, and the option of quality pizza even in the small hours of the night, after most of the good pizzerias have already closed.”
16 Jabotinsky Street, Rishon Lezion, Sunday–Thursday and Saturday 12:00–02:00, Friday 12:00–04:00, brunch: 09:00–14:00