‘I like Preston just as much as Greece’ says the man behind the city’s newly-crowned best pizza

Cafe Bar, boasting an utterly charming courtyard off Winckley Street in the heart of Preston, impressed us no end during our visit to the establishment. From the impeccably polite and welcoming staff to the stunning food, the restaurant is everything that eating out should be - it was a pleasure from start to finish.

On the food front, the phoenix pizza - a dish we now know is one of Cafe Bar’s best-sellers - wowed with fluffy and light dough, a rich homemade sauce, and a lovely balance of stringy cheese. Covering the pizza was an assortment of ham, pepperoni, and jalapenos to round off what was and continues to be the best pizza I’ve tried in Preston.

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“The most important thing on a pizza is quality ingredients,” said Atham Tsuchnikas, whose family has run the restaurant for almost 30 years. “Since Covid and Brexit, things have been harder to source so consistency is hard, but sometimes that’s not necessarily a bad thing because you find new products that you wouldn’t necessarily have found otherwise.

“We’ve had this restaurant in the family for 30 years and we’ve learned from the best, so it’s tried and tested,” he added. “We’re just here to continue and keep up the good name. We wouldn’t do it if we didn’t have the same love for it as we did at the very start. We’ve got something special here.

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“You can set your watch by regulars coming each week,” said Atham, who has experience of working in the food industry in his family’s native Greece. “I took over in 2013 and there were babies born back then who are young teenagers now. It’s great - we can’t wait to come to work here.

“We get the same satisfaction from doing this work here in Preston as we did in Rhodes because we’re people people,” he continued. “Pizza is also important because it brings people together. I was always told that the secret to success [in the restaurant business] was location, location, location, as well as quality food, good service, and a good price.”

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Keen to ask the man behind Preston’s best pizza what the secret to his culinary success is, I ask Atham what goes into making the city’s top slice.

“The dough is key,” he replies. “There are times when you might run out on a Saturday night and you’re tempted to make it there and then to get the last few pizzas out, but we never do it because it needs time to grow and ferment, so we make the dough today for tomorrow. You’ve got to respect it.”

Couple that attention to detail with a good source of quality ingredients, a lovely restaurant, and friendly faces ready to welcome customers each day and it’s safe to say Cafe Bar have got a very successful recipe indeed.

Adoni, who works with Atham puts it best: “I have customers say to me ‘when I come to your place, I feel like I’m on holiday because I can escape from reality’. We’re like a family for many people.”

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