Could this be the best pizzeria in Cork?

AT the corner of Ballynoe Inn on Cobh island there are some red hot pizza ovens serving up New York style pizza.

The icy blue neon sign of ‘Rush’ makes the building very distinct from the road, and the matt black paint is emblematic of the youthful and stylish energy that Mike Meaney, the proprietor, is exuding into the space.

Mike is the son of Mick and Sarah Meaney, who began Nutcase Food Company 11 years ago. Mick followed his passion for food and underwent a cookery course at Ballymaloe, and young Mike, who was in transition year at the time, opted for two weeks of work experience in the kitchen and loved it.

He spent his time vacuum packing chicken, prepping vegetables and scrubbing dishes.

“I think everyone should do some hospitality work when they’re young so people can see what really goes on behind the scenes,” Mick said.

The family home initially was prep headquarters for Nutcase Food Company and for their nutburger patties. Mick would be in the kitchen cranking out batches of patty mix, endlessly sweating down onions with clouds of moisture wafting through the house and sticking to the kids’ school uniforms.

“I used to go to school all the time and ask the lads, do I smell today? They’d say, yep, onions!”

They then began selling at the farmers’ markets in the city and the product slowly caught on. It wasn’t your typical burger, but with the family being vegetarians, they imbued and expressed the passion required to get people trying their creations, and once it caught on they were off to the races - it’s been over a decade of tasty vegan or vegetarian burgers since.

The patties contain cashews, chickpeas, lentils, peppers and other spices and are served on soft brioche or focaccia with a myriad of delectable accoutrements.

They sell nut roasts as well, which is a particularly popular product at Christmas.

The family enterprise expanded but stayed on the island with the Wholey Ground café opening in Cobh serving homemade cakes and coffee.

The passion for pizza was always humming away in the background and Mick and Mike, father and son, during lockdown would compete over who could make the best pizza dough.

“I’d say dad could probably make the better dough but I was the better stretcher.”

They formed a good union and purchased a portable Gozney pizza oven and so the experimentation began.

The style of pizza they’ve opted for is the New York style, which means the dough is thin and is cooked until the entire base is crisp.

“When New York style pizza was being explained to me, I was told you should be able to hold a slice over a baby’s head, meaning the dough is crisp and doesn’t flop in the centre.”

‘It’s all about the floppage!’ to use ‘Barstool Sports’ lingo, who are New York pizza reviewers and have been an inspiration towards Mike’s attention to detail that has filtered through the business.

The Neapolitan style pizza is more ubiquitous nowadays and they require a hotter oven of 450 degrees centigrade, and it’s that heat that causes the almost instantaneous bubbling of the dough and charred and dotted crust, or the ‘leoparding’.

With such a fast cooking time of 90 seconds, it can actually leave the centre of the pizza still soggy – or floppy.

The New York style requires a lower temperature of 300 and can take six minutes or so for that even, crisp distribution across the base.

Mike, with his Rush operation, is opting to go against the grain, which certainly makes things more interesting for the pizza connoisseurs of Cork.

He is passionate about the process and when it’s high quality, it takes a bit of time, but he prides himself in being fast also. He’s certainly developed the lightning quick reflexes of someone who has repeated a task many times on their way to mastery, as I watched him whip together pizzas.

Do you ever get sick of pizza? I ask.

“It’s my favourite food, I could eat it every day so I can’t imagine that ever becoming a problem.”

The pizzeria unit was quite desolate when they took it over and they kept it in the family when fitting the place out, as uncle Dave Meaney is a steel fabricator and built all the worktops and counters they have there.

Mike, who’s 26, has a master’s in Food Business and Innovation so he has an in-depth understanding of the industry and is very well positioned to take his expertise to the next level.

He’s even been approached about giving pizza seminars in academic settings and is now managing a crew of young lads at the weekends who work part-time for him, teaching them the ropes and being a good mentor to them and a helpful asset to his home community, Cobh.

Mike has come a long way from a transition year kitchen porter at Ballymaloe.

Currently, he’s taking online orders via his Instagram @rush_pizza, which is where you can find their menu, and an ordering app is in the works and soon to go online. You can always pop round to the Ballynoe Inn and enjoy a pint and a pizza, too.