Little Palace – Spiciest Dish in Columbus Series

Little Palace, little sandwiches, a little heat.

When we lived in Downtown Columbus, Little Palace was a regular haunt for us. Any event that had us out late in the evenings, or friends in town, we’d head to Little Palace. Just one storefront away from Dirty Frank’s Hot Dogs, Little Palace sits on S 4th Street, with a big ol’ straight out of the ’60s arrow pointing to the door. With Tee Jaye’s closing, it will be one of the only remaining arrows pointing to a restaurant in the city (unscientific research proves it).

On the Little Palace menu, there are many small bites to be had. Small sandwiches, featuring the always tasty Meatball Mini, Crisp Chicken Sandwich, and Double Palace Burger, are what we tended to order because they’re everything you want a slider-like sandwich to be. Meat sprawling out past the edges of the bun, loaded with flavor and just the right size to eat all 3 and not feel terrible about yourself.

Seriously, look at this smol burger.

Not really known for their spicy dishes (and better known to us by their smol scrumptious sammiches), the Soppressata Picante sticks out as the hottest item on the Little Palace menu. Crushed tomatoes, mozzarella di bufala, serrano pepper, garlic, and spicy soppressata top this 10″ pizza, teasing you to eat the entire thing in one sitting.

The serranos are baked into the pizza, keeping their full flavor and heat, but softening up a bit which takes away from the crunch, but gets rid of some of the bitterness the serrano tends to bring. Spread thoroughly throughout the slices, the serranos take a minute to deliver their heat, but by the third bite they peek their head out to say “whaddup.” If you’re familiar with the serrano, you know that their a zippy lil’ pepper that tastes similar to a jalapeno, but at 3x the heat.

My dumb brain sees “mozzarella di bufala” and converts it to “buffalo sauce cheese.” Nope. It’s cheese made from domesticated water buffalo, so no extra heat here, but apparently better for you as a whole.

Typically leveraging red pepper flakes or calabrian peppers, the spicy soppressata adds a tiny tingle of heat, but the real spicy star is the serrano pepper. Bite after bite, more little pockets of peppery goodness that bring a faint under-eye sweat, but never get to an overwhelming state.

From its mild-range SHU pepper feature, the Soppressata Picante is a solid starter pizza for spicy adventurers. Unlike the depths of madness that Fibonacci’s or Mikey’s dive into, Little Palace is more interested in letting you enjoy a pizza with a bit of heat. With that in mind, we’re placing Little Palace at #73, just above Yats Grandview Drunken Chicken and right below Helen’s Asian Kitchen’s Stir-Fried Cauliflower.

You can find Little Palace at 240 South 4th Street, Columbus OH 43215.

Look below for more in our Spiciest dish in Columbus series and hit us up if you have any suggestions that are not already on our list!

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