Christian & Magnus met through their love of real ale and craft beer.

 

Magnus was working for Christian at Church Hanbrewery and at Teardrop; a bar in Oxford's Covered Market owned by Christian and his wife Luciana.

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They are both big foodies and love cooking all kinds of foods from around the world. So, when the global pandemic happened in March 2020, Christian approached Magnus about opening a pizzeria at the brewery, to save the family business. Magnus was delighted to be involved and immediately jumped to the opportunity.

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The idea was to be able to offer a high quality pizza, yet very affordable, in a safe environment.

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They worked on the menu and branding for the new pizzeria. The name Sartorelli is Luciana's actual family name. It was perfect because it had strong emotional meaning to them, but also ideal to communicate the approach of the pizzeria where customers could tailor pizzas the way they wanted.

​Carefully selecting a few ingredients that could be easily sourced fresh in England, the menu was born. The menu was printed and distributed house-by-house in the surrounding area next to the brewery.​​

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A small wood fired oven was purchased, and pizzas were prepared and baked inside the brewery. Thanks to the great support from their local community, 50 pizzas were sold in the first weekend. Then a few more flew away in the following weekend, with some customers coming back for more. After 6 weeks, a new oven and other equipment was needed.

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But something was keeping Magnus awake. Despite the success, the initial dough was not real sourdough. So, over the next months, Magnus got to work on improving the dough recipe and to create a signature authentic sourdough, with more flavour and elasticity. That's when he gave birth to Sarah, Sartorelli's sourdough starter. A magical move.

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Thanks to the great support from their customers, Sartorelli's have now three shops in Oxfordshire.

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