{"id":79617,"date":"2025-12-11T11:02:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T11:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/79617\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T11:02:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T11:02:07","slug":"perlas-pizza-brings-thin-crust-florida-man-pies-and-a-thumping-soundtrack-to-winter-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/79617\/","title":{"rendered":"Perla\u2019s Pizza brings thin-crust ‘Florida Man’ pies and a thumping soundtrack to Winter Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Credit: Matt Keller Lehman<\/p>\n

When Michael Collantes announced he was rebooting Perla\u2019s Pizza \u2014 the maverick pie house he started with Christian Ziegler in 2021, before the pair agreed to close the Ivanhoe Village venture after only six months \u2014 bananas came to mind. Bananas because the \u201cIt\u2019s Bananas!\u201d pizza at Perla\u2019s v1.0 was well worth noting for its, well, bananas. In my review, I said: \u201cGo ahead and scarf down a cheesy, red-sauce pie dotted with curled-up rounds of pepperoni, Calabrese peppers and bananas. That\u2019s right, bananas. Call me bananas, but it\u2019s a great combination. The only thing missing? More bananas.\u201d<\/p>\n

And more bananas are precisely what I expected on the \u201cIt\u2019s Bananas!\u201d pie at Perla\u2019s v2.0 (which sits next to the recently shuttered Bar Kada). What I didn\u2019t expect was the thumping bass inside the pizzeria. In fact, Perla\u2019s is as much a vinyl record bar as it is a pizza joint, and a vibey one at that. A seat next to the DJ booth on a Saturday night trembled the fruity, 12-inch round on the chrome pizza stand like a coin atop a washing machine. And while the cheesy disc didn\u2019t skimp on the pepperoni char cups, Calabrian chili or Parmesan, there weren\u2019t enough bananas on the bloody thing. Both Collantes and general manager Colin Burke say they\u2019re leery of placing too much banana on the pizza. Burke, in fact, told us that some people even order it without the bananas, to which I responded, \u201cOrdering a pizza called \u2018It\u2019s Bananas!\u2019 without any bananas is simply bananas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"aCredit: Matt Keller Lehman<\/p>\n

Another Perla\u2019s v1.0 favorite dubbed \u201cEveryone Hates Pineapple\u201d has been renamed \u201cHawaiian Punch\u201d ($18), and it\u2019s an absolute knockout. It embodies everything I love in a pizza \u2014 sweet (pineapple jam), smoky (bacon), fiery (jalape\u00f1os) and pickled (onions) elements. Pizzaiolo Marco Puglielli fashions a fine crust from a blend of bread flour and whole wheat flour that he says maximizes structure, flavor and digestibility. \u201cWe build every batch on a minimum 24-hour matured poolish which gives the dough its depth, aroma and gentle acidity,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"garlicCredit: Matt Keller Lehman<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fired in a Pizzamaster oven at 575 degrees for four or five minutes, lending the bottom of the thin crust a nice char. But let\u2019s be honest: It\u2019s all about the toppings at Perla\u2019s. \u201cFlorida Man pizza\u201d is what Collantes touts, with a stated goal to be \u201chated by all Italians.\u201d But in the case of the spaghetti-less \u201cMom\u2019s Spaghetti & Meatballs\u201d ($18), the pink-sauce base and deep flavor of the beef polpette would tug at the heart of a Neapolitan or Roman or two. It\u2019s finished with lemon ricotta, Parmesan, basil, garlic butter and parsley \u2014 molto Italiano.<\/p>\n

In the somewhat Indian-ish \u201cTikka the Hut\u201d ($17), chicken, garam masala and pickled red onion replace the meatballs, Parmesan and basil with mixed results. The Indian-ish folks at our table were less than enthused. Same goes for Perla\u2019s baby kale salad ($12). It just lacked punch, unlike the Hawaiian pizza. The starters that do work are soft doughy garlic knots ($12) \u2014 look out, Pizza Bruno \u2014 and crispy, saucy baked Buffalo wings ($12) we enjoyed with a garlic Parmesan dip. Orders, BTW, are placed by scanning a QR code with your phone, so don\u2019t forget to bring it.<\/p>\n

Puglielli happens to be a trained pastry chef as well. On weekends, his banana pudding ($8) with Nilla Wafer crumbles pays a smooth respect to nostalgia, just like the vinyl-spinning DJ. And the one thing the pudding didn\u2019t lack? Bananas.<\/p>\n

(Perla\u2019s Pizza: 959 W. Fairbanks Ave., Winter Park, 689-444-7143, perlaspizzafl.com, $$)<\/p>\n

Orlando\u2019s daily dose of what matters. Subscribe to The Daily Weekly.<\/p>\n

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This article appears in Dec. 10-16, 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Matt Keller Lehman When Michael Collantes announced he was rebooting Perla\u2019s Pizza \u2014 the maverick pie house…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1623,39310,139,141,140,44532,7591],"class_list":["post-79617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-apple-news","tag-michael-collantes","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-perlas-pizza","tag-winter-park-restaurants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}