Why Sonny’s Pizza takeaway in Hong Kong is selling by-the-slice New York pizza, and its hot dog and ice cream partners

Son Pham (right) and Shakib Pasha, owners of Sonny's Pizza, at their shop in SoHo, Hong Kong. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

• Takeaway-only Sonny's Pizza in SoHo sells New York-style pizza by the slice. It's the brainchild of chef Son Pham, and Shakib Pasha of Ming Fat Group
• Sonny's, which uses a special fermented dough for its pizza bases, shares its space with Randy's Hotdogs, and with Milk, which sells soft-serve ice cream

Pizza is commonly eaten by the slice in North America, on the go and with no pressure to commit to an entire pie. Hongkongers, though, still tend to associate pizzas with either home delivery or dining in, sitting down in a restaurant or Neapolitan-style pizzeria to share a whole pizza.

"I think it's a cultural thing," says chef Son Pham, who splits his time between Singapore and Hong Kong. "In the West, lots of people walk and eat, whereas in Asia, I don't find too much of that.

"Everyone likes to sit down, chat and hang out. Maybe that's why not many have ventured into the single slice model."

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The few by-the-slice pizzerias in Hong Kong have mostly been limited to venues such as Paisano; Alice Pizzeria is a more recent entrant from Italy, serving pizzas that are cut to order in rectangular slabs.

Pham and his business partner Shakib Pasha are hoping to add their own take to the limited market in the form of Sonny's Pizza, a freshly opened New York-style, strictly takeaway joint in SoHo, on the southwest corner of Hollywood Road and Elgin Street, serving up no-frills, high-quality pizza slices.

"I do think that Hong Kong is just as busy as New York. People are always on the run but they're more used to Asian food," says Pasha, whose portfolio at Ming Fat Group includes upscale bars such as Dr Fern's Gin Parlour and Foxglove.

"A smaller takeaway space also gives you more freedom to invest in the quality of the product."

As for Pham, he has been in the restaurant business for the best part of two decades - having interned and worked at high-end venues such as Noma in Copenhagen and Ryugin in Tokyo, he has also previously cooked for Le Comptoir Group and Pirata Group as well as Vietnamese restaurant Co Thanh - which is where he met Pasha as a customer.

"Shak used to come in and we just started chatting and hanging out, and basically became good friends," Pham says.

In 2022, the chef moved to Singapore. While brainstorming with Pasha (who remains in Hong Kong) he decided to create his own by-the-slice Sonny's Pizza shop in the Lion City, where the concept was even more foreign to local palates.

"It was actually a similar case to Hong Kong, possibly even more so because there was literally no other people doing it," Pasha says.

The venue had its growing pains as a result, with an initially confused clientele. "We've had customers ask, 'Oh, can you make me a fresh slice?' They couldn't understand the display thing. At least in Hong Kong, people already have that grab-and-go culture."

Sonny's - both in Singapore and Hong Kong - offers a more modern, New York-style pizza, using premium Italian ingredients for the classics as well as playing with toppings that are uniquely local.

"I try to have a little more artisanal approach. We're using Italian flour, Italian cheese, Italian tomato, but it's a New York pizza. Basically, we're trying to create an affordable slice with really good ingredients," Pham says.

"As for flavours, people love the classics but they also want to be a bit adventurous. So here, we added interesting choices like steak and cheese and the 'Kowloon Kid' using Chinese preserved lap cheong sausages. In Singapore, we do butter chicken pizza, laksa pizza. There's fewer rules in Asia for what pizza can be."

The other difference is, instead of a sourdough base they use a formula from Naples called biga dough, essentially a salt-free yeast starter, similar to French poolish.

"Lately, the most popular New York pizza shops actually go back to using this more traditional Neapolitan-style dough," Pasha says. "It's made using fresh yeast, with a higher hydration, and basically we combine old dough, mixing it with water, or just add it directly to new dough so you have a bit more funkiness into it."

Fans of biga also suggest the method creates a softer, airier pizza with a more intense aroma.

The other difference at the Hong Kong branch is that it is home to multiple brands. In addition to Sonny's Pizza, there is Randy's Hotdogs, a collaboration with Michael Chan of burger bar Honbo; and Milk soft-serve ice cream, a separate partnership with Pasha and his barber.

"I actually get my hair cut right next to the shop," Pasha says.

"My barber always wanted to open an ice cream place and we noticed the space next to him wasn't doing much. Then, the hot dogs came into play when I was talking to my friend Michael from Honbo. He told me, 'Hey, I actually know the landlord. He's a primary school friend of mine'."

Sonny's Pizza, Randy's Hotdogs and Milk offer six varieties of pizzas, four different hot dogs - among them, a Tokyo dog with beef sausage, Kewpie mayonnaise, house-made okonomiyaki sauce and katsuobushi (dried bonito tuna) flakes - and soft-serve Hokkaido milk ice cream.

Sonny's has also recently struck another partnership, with nearby craft cocktail bar Dead Poets, to supply pizzas from 5pm Thursdays to Saturdays.

"People definitely associate hot dogs with Americana food, as well, so it was very easy to package it all," says Pasha. "Together, everyone can kick off their brand without having to commit to their own shop."

He adds: "It's great that we're all able to experiment with different things and all the products complement each other really well."

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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.

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