Forbidden fruit is the sweetest.
It’s human nature to pine for what you can’t have. For Beau and Nicole Baudier, that pining is over with the opening of Forbidden Pizza. They are now offering the pizza of their dreams in their own backyard.
“We are both obsessed with pizza,” Beau says. “We’ve spent a lot of time in New York, where we fell in love with Brooklyn-style, thin-crust pizza.”
Forbidden Pizza
Where
604 Baronne St., (504) 233-0821; forbiddenpizza.com
When
Lunch and dinner Wed.-Mon.
How
Limited dining space and takeout
Check it out
Brooklyn-style pizza in the CBD
The couple, New Orleanians who grew up around Lakeview, are real estate developers specializing in historic buildings. When they bought the building at 604 Baronne St., they thought the ground floor seemed ideal for what they had in mind.
Their tastebuds lean to a purist pie, not one that’s too garlicky or herbaceous. After years spent fact finding and sampling everything from deep dish to Neapolitan and Sicilian styles, the couple decided to bring the borough’s thin-crust pies to New Orleans.
“We had to work with our suppliers to get the imported Italian ingredients we wanted,” Beau says, including a proprietary blend of five flours to organic tomatoes, cheeses and pepperoni.
“We want the kind of place we like to go to when we travel,” Nicole says. “We can eat pizza twice a week, but the focus has to be on high-quality ingredients.”
The place is eye-catching, with its brass snake door handles and a fetching logo that features an image inspired by Nicole. With cascading curls, the beauty is wrapped in a slithering serpent strategically placed across her cleavage, her lips about to close on a cheesy slice of pepperoni pizza. “We like to be playful, to have fun,” says the former nurse.
The current shop is a counter service pizza joint with a few stools inside and a menu of red and white pies. The plan is for the couple to open a sit-down eatery connected to the original space, with seats at a bar and five tables. There will be table service, a full bar and salad options, which the couple hopes will be ready in time to serve Super Bowl crowds.
The pizza menu is still evolving, based on a thin, crispy crust and a range of toppings that keep the original sin theme going. The Original Sin pie is their version of a margherita. Then there’s the Garden of Eatin’, with mushrooms and bell peppers, and Forbidden Fruit, topped with mozzarella, fig jam and bacon.
The pies are 20 inches, because “size matters,” according to the menu, and whole pies range from $28 to $36. Many area pizza parlors serve 16- or 18-inch pies. Here, that extra real estate transforms a slice into a mega-slice. Priced from $5-$6, a single slice makes for a bargain lunch.
There’s always a special slice, and sometimes it’s from one of the pies that are normally only available whole. One example is Nicole’s favorite, Some Like It Hot, a red sauce pie with mozzarella, pepperoni, jalapeno and hot honey. There’s also a sausage and pesto option as well as an all-meat Italian Stallion pie.
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Dessert options include house-made cookies and soft-serve gelato. The couple plans to add delivery service later.
Going into the restaurant business isn’t exactly taking the easy way out, but the excitement of achieving this goal is a welcome change from the real estate grind, Beau says.
“I’m a little burnt out,” he says. “This is a lot of work, but we’re having fun.”
It’s also not their first foray into feeding people. They opened Ironworks Coffee and Crepes around the corner on Girod Street in 2022.
“We think the location is solid, so close to the Superdome,” Beau says. “The downtown energy is perfect for grabbing a slice on the go.”
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Dining and Cooking