Isla’s Insights
Isla’s Insights
Pizza, Oysters, and the Case for Not Overthinking Dinner
Author: Tom Rowse | July 23, 2026
Category: Cocktails
There's a version of you that eats pizza alone in the kitchen, standing over the box, no plate, completely at peace. There's another version of you that orders three pies for a table of six and watches the whole thing disappear before the first bottle of wine is empty. Both versions are correct. That's the trick of pizza. It doesn't ask you to be anything other than hungry.
Comfort food gets thrown around as a lazy compliment, like it just means "familiar" or "carbs." But real comfort food does something specific. It lowers your guard. It doesn't require a reservation of attention the way a tasting menu does. You can talk over it, argue over it, cry over it, and it will not judge you or ask you to slow down and appreciate the reduction. Pizza is the rare dish that works exactly as well solo at 11pm as it does surrounded by people you love on a Sunday afternoon. Most food can't hold both of those rooms. Pizza always has.
That's why we got a pizza oven.
Not because the Lower East Side needed another slice shop, and not because we thought a pizza oven would look good in the corner of our kitchen, though it does. We got it because we wanted an excuse to make the kind of pizza we actually crave, the kind with a blistered crust and toppings that feel considered instead of default, and we wanted a reason to get people back out on a Sunday evening, the weekend isn’t over yet. So starting this Sunday, and every Sunday after, we're firing it up at 4pm at Isla & Co. Lower East Side. A veggie and a meat pie option, and pair one with any glass of wine for $25 alongside it. Lower East Side pizza night, done properly, once a week, no reservation required.
And since we're on the subject of things that are good no matter what mood you're in, let's talk about oysters.
An oyster is one of the only foods that works at every possible hunger level. Starving? An oyster is a start. Already stuffed? An oyster somehow still makes sense. Not even thinking about food, just thinking about a drink? An oyster shows up and improves the moment anyway. At a dollar each, that's not really a menu item anymore, it's a standing invitation. Pair it with a $10 martini during happy hour and you've got the best hour on the block.
Monday gets a bad reputation it doesn't deserve. We'd argue the blues don't stand a chance against a plate of $1 oysters and a cold martini, and we've built our Monday around proving it.
Pizza on Sunday. Oysters every day. Come hungry, come full, come alone or come with everyone. Isla & Co Lower East Side is open and the oven's on.
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