So in honor of our 1 year of dating bliss, we decided to celebrate with a quiet, romantic, candlelit dinner for two...errr, I mean, a loud, florescent light-lit dinner with a hundred of our closest strangers eating pizza. But not just any pizza, Antico Pizza Napoletano.
**Warning - this is a long post - this place is social experiential eating so there is a LOT to tell!
Antico Pizza Napoletano is a little pizza joint on the west side of the Georgia Tech campus that serves delicious Neopolitan style pizza. Now, pizza may not sound like a very creative, splashy choice for such a special event (and this is a special event, I mean he's tolerated me for a year now :), but it is truly one of our favorite foods. Chris claims to be able to eat it daily - that's a bit gluttonous for me, but I could come close if you twisted my arm.
Now, this restaurant isn't something we just stumbled upon, friends of ours recommended we try it - they STRONGLY recommended it, while we were eating at a local pizza joint, coincidentally. Funny how that happened. Anywho, we Googled it, and really, the only things we learned about it were:
1. expect a long wait
2. you sit at communal tables
3. the pizza is amazing
When we arrived, a "bouncer" (who is the owner I think) greeted us at the door and sternly, but politely directed us to the end of the line of about 10 people, to wait...TO ENTER THE RESTAURANT! I mean, wow, were we at a club?! How special is this place? After only about 5 minutes of waiting though, he motioned for us all to enter, and WAIT INSIDE. In line. To order. Again, I'm thinking, this better be good and worth the waits (yes, waits is plural at this place).
While waiting, we scoped the place out. The entrance to the restaurant is a narrow "hallway" with glass on one side were you can see into the first of two rooms, and through the door to the back room where they cook the pizza. We noticed two things while waiting, there was a very varied assortment of adult beverages people were consuming, and there was definitely a communal atmosphere with pizzas just laid out on the tables. Interesting.
When we got to the front of the line, we perused the menu board - and had no idea what most of the options were. Call us uneducated, call us wanna-be foodies, but don't call us unadventurous, cuz we just picked one off the menu and had no idea what most of the toppings were. We ordered the Divola pizza. Now the pizzas are pricey, from 19-24 smackeroos for one pie, but one pie can feed 2-4 people, depending on how polite, hungry, or a pizza fanatic you are. Chris and I ate an entire pie ourselves, and had the food babies to prove it. We also ordered 2 soft drinks - 8.5 oz over priced Cokes - that's about 1 cup and a sip, or 4 gulps. They also have overpriced water, wine and one brand of beer on offer.
So here comes lesson #1: BYOB: bring your own beverage. Now, I don't know how they feel about non-alcoholic drinks being brought in, but you can DEFINITELY bring in your own alcohol. There is no corking fee, and they will also open your bottle for you, and provide plastic tumblers. Score!!! Some crazy people even brought their own glass wine glasses - which I find pretentious and a bit silly personally. We didn't know this, but a group of lovely young women shared two glasses of their wine with us, so sweet. Love me some wine with my pizza, or really, just whenever.
Once we ordered, it became a game of figuring out what to do next. Where do we go? How do we get our pizza? Where will we sit? We moseyed around in the front room, pretty table, lighting and stools - too full. Then to the back room...warehouse style, florescent lighting, long tables with benches, and the kitchen right there, within reach, no glass separating, nothing. Just right in the mix with the tables and diners. We stood with a group of people, scoping the joint for an open seat or two. Then we noticed the "waitresses" carrying pizzas on giant rimmed-baking sheets. Yup, no pizza rounds here, just giant cookie sheets.
Here comes lesson #2: As the "waitresses" come around calling our your order number, if you don't have a seat already, they will help you find a place. ANY PLACE. Anywhere they can set your pizza down, where you can gather around it, they will. This could be a lovely seat at one of the tables, OR it could be gathered around a stack of boxes in the kitchen, or as Chris and I got, a spot at one of the kitchen "islands" just steps from the giant, wood fired ovens.
When our pizza was delivered, we were escorted to an island like I said, just steps from the oven and kitchen staff. As a matter of fact, I think Chris actually was in the kitchen while he ate. Because we were at an island, we stood. Sounds bad, but it was kind of fun, as we got to see the kitchen staff at work, and see the rest of the restaurant while eating.
Lesson #3: Nothing you order here is bad. Truly! The pizza was scrumptious. Ours had a spicy cured salami on it with sweet (and kinda spicy, just like me) red peppers in a vinegar brine, and fresh bufalo mozzerella. The hand-tossed/stretched dough makes a crust that is slightly/lightly charred when cooked, just like they advertise, and with a nice chew to it - not crispy, and not floppy. Just right. And they have a fun little "toppings" bar, too. So cool.
And they manage to get this good of a pie by flying in fresh ingredients from Naples - weekly!!! That means all the deliciousness on that pie is not only fresh and made to order, but truly authentic Neapolitan pizza. And to add to the authenticity, they cook the pizzas in wood-fired ovens flown in from Naples. Boom! Now that's the way to make a pizza!
There are more details I could share about our dining adventure, but I should stop here and encourage you to have your own. Antico Pizza is definitely worth the drive, the effort to find a seat, and the cost. Dare I say this is my favorite pizza...ever? But that's just my opinion.
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