Billy & Pete’s: Elevated Pizzas, Seasonal Cocktails & Delicious Bite-Sized Donuts

Taking their mutual love and knowledge of the restaurant industry and bringing it to the area where one of them grew up, Billy Bishop and Peter Smith recently opened Billy & Pete’s Social. The restaurant’s convivial spirit and contemporary American-themed food (with Italian accents) has already garnered enthusiastic reaction from the Mamaroneck/Larchmont area.

While the duo had to introduce the restaurant with a slightly smaller menu than originally planned, they are already finding an enthusiastic audience for their pizzas, cocktails and the bite-sized, pop in your mouth donuts that are sold on weekends at a window at the side of the restaurant.

“We’re looking to be a place where members of this community in their mid-30s to late 50s feel comfortable having a meal, enjoying a drink and just feeling there’s a place they can come to forget their woes,” says Smith. (Of course, the pair notes, people younger and older are also welcome.) Both the outdoor seating, with an expanded patio, and the indoor space with its vibey black and white setting and photography of a bygone era make you want to pull up a seat and linger. And linger you will over the menu. We dined on amazing blistered shishito peppers, with an unexpected soy-lime glaze that raises the peppers’ game, and one of their signature Detroit pizzas – ours had pepperoni and just the right amount of hot honey. There are also seasonal salads and grilled pizzas. The recently rolled out brunch offers up a choice of two brunch pizzas – one a take on a smoked salmon tartine and the other a take on a Croque Madame.  By the end of this month look for Billy & Pete’s to bring Roman street food to Westchester with trapizzinos, small pizza sandwiches with such fillings such as braised meat, chicken cacciatore and eggplant parmigiana. 

Seasonal and refreshing cocktails include a Myrtle Margarita, with Jalapeno syrup adding a kick and a Pink Magnolia with the beach flavors of rum, fresh watermelon juice, and fresh lime juice. There’s also beer from Broken Bow Brewery in Tuckahoe.

And on the weekends, for the perfect way to end a meal, or to just stop by here and grab some to go, there is Side Door Donuts. “Billy and I both love donuts and there’s something about the kind you can pop in your mouth,” says Smith of the bite-sized beauties served at Side Door. With a changing menu which may include Fruity Pebbles or S’mores, the donuts come out deliciously warm and irresistible. Side Door is powered by Bishop’s twin college-age daughters. “It’s been really special to open up where I grew up, to see generations of families coming in, and to have a positive impact on the community,” says Bishop.

Billy & Pete’s Social, 121 Myrtle Blvd, Larchmont, www.billyandpetes.com