1 week Ago By Max Veenhuyzen
14 / 20 How we score Italian $ $$$ Mount Vesuvius. Diego Maradona. Terrific disco : all are things that the world associates with Naples, the capital of Campania and Italy’s third-biggest city.
Naples is, of course, also synonymous with good eating and considered by many to be the birthplace of modern-day pizza. It’s also the birthplace of pizza chefs Andrea Orabona and Antonio Carrino. After meeting at Pizzeria Da Leo – Carrino had recently arrived from Sydney and was looking for work; Orabona was one of Da Leo’s partners – and bonding over their shared heritage, the duo hatched plans to open a shop where they could really put their hometown’s good stuff front and centre.
Those plans materialised last year as Pizzeria Da Napoli: a clean-cut shopfront in Como giving way to splashes of forest green and glimpses of an open kitchen replete with gleaming copper-plated pizza oven. Whereas some pizzerias rely on maximalism and well-worn Italo design tropes to sell you their tricolore credentials, Da Napoli simply feels Italian. Staff and customers don’t miss a chance to speak rapid-fire in their native tongue.
Italian pop songs feature on the playlist. Fashion choices among guests run from streetwear to sprezzatura , that elusive Italian concept of unforced elegance. Swag never takes a day off, nor do team Da Napoli who – God bless them – trade seven nights.
As if on cue, two pals arrive in a scooter to grab a pick-up order that they carefully pack in a box at the back of their bike. It’s a cutesy scene, certainly, but if I’m being honest most of the folk dropping in to pick up pizzas are delivery drivers bringing Da Napoli to the people. While any pizza is, of course, good pizza, I hope that those people enjoying Da Napoli at home also get the chance to enjoy Da Napoli at Da Napoli, too.
Naples-style pizza, as you know, is best eaten hot. All the better to enjoy the puff of its crust (the cornicione , in Italian) and the fine interplay between the pie’s chewy dough and the sweet-sour sugo and cheese while both are in that magic altered state between solid and liquid. A hat! Is Wildflower as good as it has always been? For my lira, Da Napoli’s pizza rings true to what I ate in Naples when I visited in 2018.
Their bases are soft and pliable – these aren’t the structural, gravity-defying miracles found at Maestro, yet nor are they mean to be – and punctuated with bumps, bubbles and blonde burnt bits produced by baking a slow-fermented dough in a hot oven. The pizzas themselves are topped with a light hand using cheese made by local milk whisperers La Delizia Latticini plus ingredients that feel classically Italian, even if used in not-typically-classical ways. (House creations, for example, include garlic tiger prawns and meatballs.
) Still, Da Napoli is a fine addition to Perth’s Naples-style pizza options. Just know that its plus-sized pizzas (from $22) are much larger than others around town that are proportioned for one. One pizza between two – plus a few extra snacks – feels right, otherwise a kids-sized pizza could work ($15) for solo eaters, although your only choices are margherita or ham and cheese.
But while the pizza feels traditionally Neapolitan, Orabona and Carrino take an untraditional approach to making it. Dough production is centralised at a dedicated doughmaking facility owned by Orabona, while pizzas are cooked in a gas-powered Marana pizza armed with a programmable turntable base made of volcanic stone. While the pizza might have been prepared unconventionally, it’s hard to argue with the quality of the finished product.
And if two Neapolitan pizzamakers can embrace technology in the pursuit of consistency, the least eaters can do is consider their perspective. While the menu stars other pizza-adjacent items – a heaps naughty block of deep-fried bucatini carbonara (three for $19); Caprese salad ($20) let down by underripe tomatoes; mascarpone-heavy tiramisu ($14) – its highlights tend to feature some degree of flour power. Imaginative dishes make South Freo’s Madalena’s an essential address for lovers of seafood The springy gnocchi (from $26) feels simultaneously light and weighty and come in imaginative combinations (spicy nduja and lemon myrtle oil, anyone?).
The house pizza dough also features in the desserts as “pizza churros” ($17), otherwise known as angioletti alla Nutella, a beloved Naples street food. They fry strips of dough. They dust them with icing sugar.
They pipe Nutella over said strips of dough. The defence rests it case. On the back of the Da Napoli menu is the motto, “a’pizze’ na cosa seria”: Italian for “pizza is a serious matter”.
For team Napoli, that seriousness involves considering untraditional approaches when trying to streamline the production of a traditional style of pizza. It seems to be working, not least because management is about to open shop number two in Leederville this December. There are also plans next year to convert the space next to the mothership into a wine bar and extend the cramped dining area.
This would be welcome. Although Da Napoli pulses with energy, that energy feels more busy kitchen than busy restaurant. But for now, the focus will be celebrating Da Napoli’s first birthday this Sunday where the shop will be giving away 150 free margheritas to thank customers for their support .
Even when you’re being serious, it’s important to remember to have fun. The low-down Vibe: a new name to watch in Perth’s Naples-style pizza circles. Go-to dish: pizza churros (after the pizza, naturally).
Drinks: soft drinks including Italian sodas. For something a little stronger, BYO. Cost: about $70 for two, excluding drinks.
.
