The Bell Inn, a historic pub located in Bath, England, has more than one claim to fame. Not only is it run by a co-operative that includes a pair of rock music gods—Peter Gabriel and Robert Plant—it’s also home to what is described as “the world’s smallest pizzeria.”
The Pizza Bike, owned and operated by Angel Ganev, is exactly what it sounds like: a mobile pizzeria designed to “serve customers at any location that is accessible by bike,” according to Ganev’s website.
“The Pizza Bike is a true gadget powered by high-quality ingredients, bespoke hardware and software, [a] highly professional team, and, of course, a little bit of magic to keep everything in place,” Ganev explains on his site.
Ganev cooked as a hobby for years. When he was ready to try making money doing what he loved, he decided street food for local farmers markets was the way to go. “However, the high cost of building a food truck put me off—I simply didn’t have that much experience or money to do it,” he explained to Somerset Live.
Then the avid cyclist came across a lightweight portable pizza oven online. “I looked at it and thought, ‘That should fit on the back of a bicycle, and I can just cycle to the market and make some pizza.’”
Ganev modified his bike, mounted the oven on it and started booking events in 2015. He pulled out all of the marketing stops, with a fun, engaging website that tells The Pizza Bike’s story in words and pictures (lots of pictures), a presence on various social media platforms, and a strong angle for the news media. After all, how many reporters can resist a story about “the world’s smallest pizzeria”?
Ganev builds his pies with a sourdough starter (called Spelty), a blend of organic flours, Himalayan salt and water, creating a dough that’s slow-fermented for at least 36 hours. He even freezes the dough and sells it in plastic tubs for customers who want to make their own 12” pizzas at home.
As Ganev explains on his website, “Like every other starter born in Bath, Spelty has a bit of a posh diet of exotic and ancient flours like spelt, rye, einkorn and whole wheat (all organic, of course)…When it’s not baking, Spelty likes to chill out in the fridge and bubble with other starters or to cruise down the canal path on its fancy orange bike.”
Pizzas on the menu include the Sobrasadita (red sauce, sobrasada de Mallorca, buffalo mozzarella, chorizo and oak-smoked cheddar); the Hamazing (red sauce, ham, oak-smoked cheddar and oregano); and The Jolly Vegan (red sauce, black olives, jalapeños, mushrooms, fresh basil, oregano, olive oil and a vegan pesto).
In addition to serving farmers markets and festivals and catering private events, Ganev moved The Pizza Bike in 2018 to its current home at The Bell Inn, a popular Bath watering hole and music venue. There, he peddles (or should we say pedals?) his pizzas on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. He’s also added two more portable ovens to his operation, for a total of three.
But that move might not have been possible without the aforementioned Gabriel and Plant. The Bell Inn, which started as a hotel in the 1750s and evolved over two centuries into a live-music hotspot, was facing closure in 2013. Music lovers and musicians alike couldn’t bear to see it go and set out to raise the funds to buy it. They got a huge boost when the two rock stars joined their effort. A co-operative of 600 patrons, locals and staff members ultimately pitched in to purchase and manage the pub/music venue.
At the time, Plant told the BBC, “For the last 10 years or so, many of my musical adventures have been with friends from Bristol and Bath, so I’m fully aware of The Bell and its legacy and its contribution to the musicians and audience in the surrounding area.” He said the pub was a “crucial and integral venue” for the Bath community.
In that same BBC article, Peter Gabriel said, “The Bell has always been a key part of Bath’s live music scene, often giving musicians their first break and always providing music that is vibrant, diverse and free.”
Meanwhile, Ganev is living his dream with The Pizza Bike. As he explained on his website, team meetings take place “over a box of pizza” and “our office is out in the wild, which means forget about dealing with printers that don’t print [and] boring spreadsheets and say hi to the great but unpredictable British weather.”
