Azzurro Pizzeria e Enoteca
Much more than pie
Photo courtesy Azzurro Pizzeria e Enoteca
To begin, a confession: I was, as far as owner Michael Gyetvan and I can ascertain, the very first customer of the original Azzurro. So I have a certain soft spot for what has become a Napa icon, and is now known as Azzurro Pizzeria e Enoteca. The new name heralds the launch of chef-owner Gyetvan’s new larger restaurant, half a dozen or so blocks from the original location.
In addition to the extra capacity, the menu has been expanded to include a full range of antipasti, plus additions to the salad, bruschette, pasta and pizza portions of the menu. And, for the first time, dessert and coffee drinks such as espresso are available. Happily, the service has remained first-rate, friendly and knowledgeable.
The wine list also has stayed user-friendly, with many wine-by-the-glass offerings, both inventive (Barrel 27 Syrah from Paso Robles, Bogle Petite Sirah, Clif Bar Zinfandel/Syrah blend, a Luna Pinot Grigio, the superb Mason Sauvignon Blanc and the equally delicious Peter Franus Zinfandel ... the list goes on and on) and reasonable, with the majority priced at $7.25 or less per pour. If you are in the mood for beer from around the state, across the country or around the globe, there are two dozen on the list.
The restaurant also remains inviting from a design standpoint, with stained concrete floors, high white ceilings, tasteful wood accents (including a weathered-wood community table), seating at the open kitchen, lots of white tile with black accents, the restaurant’s name spelled out in tiles above the metal-framed Wood Stone oven, a triple black-framed mirror covering one wall, lots of glass and inventive light fixtures made from clear glass bottles.
The food, from the talented hands of Gyetvan and his crew, is exceptional, turning a spot that is, at its heart, a pizzeria into a destination for discerning diners. Refusing to serve anything that is not in season, Gyetvan has elevated the culinary genre of pizza to new heights. Even the beets in the roasted beet salad with mint and Sky Hill goat cheese made me, an avowed hater of this vegetable, wonder how something could be so good. He searches out the finest salumi from artisan producers, roasts and grills in-season artichokes and serves them with a Meyer lemon-caper mayonnaise, and does what might be the world’s most perfect traditional salad by combining staid, and too often, pedestrian iceberg lettuce with sensually creamy Point Reyes blue cheese and Hobbs bacon that is simply perfect.
Thin-crust pizza is to be raved about here. The pollo with chicken Italian sausage, the salsiccia with fennel sausage and red onion, the classic Margherita, all are superb, with a crust that is al dente. Add an organic egg dropped into the middle of it all, so that it becomes lightly poached, and the word “sublime” takes on a whole new meaning.
Pastas ... where to begin? My companion at lunch one day described the campanelle, comprised of “primavera, with asparagus, fava beans, tendrils of spring onions bound together with herbs and lemon,” as “eating the most incredible pasta while sitting in the middle of a vegetable garden.” And so it was.
Some salads and other dishes are also available as manciata, which means they are folded into what is described as a “handful” of fresh, just-baked dough. And while Azzurro only offers a single dessert, it is a simple wonder of Straus organic soft-serve vanilla ice cream topped with a caramel sauce and sprinkled with sea salt, or with bittersweet chocolate sauce (no salt). So while the restaurant’s motto is “Eat more pie!” the fact of the matter is that you must try it all and marvel at what care, integrity and the very finest ingredients can mean.
Azzurro Pizzeria e Enoteca, 1260 Main St., Napa (707) 255-5552; azzurropizzeria.com. Open 11:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Monday-Friday; 5-9:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Antipasto and appetizers: $2.95-11; entrées: $8.95-14.95. Half orders of many dishes are available.
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