Scottish tap water credited with making ‘best ever’ pizzas as new New York pizzeria opens in Edinburgh
Visitors to Edinburgh’s Bonnie & Wild can now enjoy a slice of New York as Flùr pizza and pasta bar has opened in the popular food hall.
On the menu at the newest Bonnie & Wild eatery there’s 18” pizzas, pizza slices and fresh pasta from this new venture from Ivan Stein, co-founder of The Gannet in Glasgow, which closed in late 2025.
Flùr takes its inspiration from the thousands of New York pizzerias that are located around the city from Queens to Brooklyn, New Jersey to Manhattan. So inspired by New York, Ivan even turned to global pizza consultant Anthony Falco for his support in developing the pizza recipe and flavours.
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Mr Stein said of his new venture: “Flue is Scot’s Gaelic for flour. It’s the common ingredient between pizza and pasta - it’s fundamental to pizza in that dough is the foundation
“That was the starting point for the concept - something that rooted it in a Scottish context rather than trying to be an Italian themed concept. It emphasises provenance / simplicity.
“Flùr is absolutely inspired by the amazing New York pizzas, but I’ve sourced the ingredients from local suppliers, including Scottish-milled flour, so we can really showcase the best of what our country has to offer, which of course fits perfectly with the wider vision at Bonnie & Wild.
“After visiting New York and sampling its amazing food scene, among the best in the world, I wanted to bring a flavour of that back to Scotland, and opening Flùr at Bonnie & Wild seemed the perfect way to do it, and it’s been fantastic to have the legendary pizza expert Falco with me on that journey.”
Mr Falco, who has never made pizza in Scotland before now, credits an unusual ingredient for the top quality of the pies available - the Edinburgh tap water. He said: “I hadn't made any pizza in Scotland before but the first thing I did when I arrived in Edinburgh was test the water. I think Edinburgh's tap water is probably some of the best on the entire planet. Water won't automatically make your pizza great but it's a huge factor.”
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With Sear’s Pizza in Glasgow - a New York inspired ‘by the slice’ restaurant - opening its fourth shop, is this the newest trend of our favourite takeaway? Mr Falco explained that our tastes have travelled from Naples to New York, saying: “When I started as a pizza consultant nine years ago, everyone was really into wood-fired, Neapolitan, and Neapolitan-ish pizza.
“I've noticed that now in the UK and many other parts of the world, people are really looking to New York for the larger format crispy pizzas and also looking to the new wave of New York pizzerias that focus on fermentation and high quality ingredients.
But with Flur, there’s a Scottish twist, and, along with the tap water, it’s creating “some of the best pizzas” as Mr Falco explained: “Unlike most of my clients, Ivan had his own sourdough culture that he's been feeding with Scottish rye. That, along with our flour blend, a biga, and 48-hour proof, resulted in some of the best pizza I've ever made."
Mr Stein added: “Pizza slices are known as a NY thing - they’ve become popular with some of the top London places in recent times and the trend has definitely spread. NY pizza is definitely having a moment.”
Pizza flavours include classics such as Margherita and Pepperoni as well as a Nduja & Honey pie or home-made Salsiccia sausage. As well as the range of 18” pizza pies and single slices, Flùr will also be serving a select menu of freshly made pasta dishes, including bucatini carbona, tagliatelle with spring vegetables, and ziti with ragu genovese, alongside arancino bites, garlic knots, weekly specials and kids dishes.
As for moving from a Michelin recommended business to pizza, Mr Stein said: “Fine dining is a small market - but I don’t like the label. There’s good and bad in all types of cuisine. Casual dining shouldn’t mean careless or less attentive. The same care and attention goes into producing craft / hand made pizza as it does serving scallops. I prefer the accessibility of casual dining. These days it’s more important than ever that customers get great value.”
Ryan Barrie, managing director at Bonnie & Wild, said: “I’m so excited by Flùr, and I think it’s going to be massive. I love the branding, the vision and most of all the food they’re producing. I think visitors to Bonnie & Wild are going to be blown away by the amazing pizza and pasta from Flùr, and it’s another amazing addition to our Scottish Marketplace from another brilliant chef at the top of their game.”