Vancouver's appetite for Neapolitan-style pizza is apparently insatiable. With the recent opening of three excellent pizzerias in previously underserved neighbourhoods (i.e. not the east side), it has suddenly become a whole lot easier to satisfy the thin-crust craving.
Pizza Fabrika
Location: 1680 Robson St.
City: Vancouver
Phone: 604-559-1680
Website: pizzafabrika.ca
Additional Info: Open daily, 5 p.m. to 12 a.m. No reservations.
Rating System: Cheap Eats
The least traditional of the bunch, Pizza Fabrika wears its non-conformist ethos on its rolled-up sleeves. The working-class design includes a raised-fist logo and Rosie-the-Riveter posters. (Fabrika is the Russian word for factory.)
Owners Stephen and Michael Wiese, founders of La Brasserie (now sold), bring a similar Franco-German love of smoked meat and good wine to this casual, compact West Ender, in a neighbourhood where it's hard to find quality cheap eats late at night that don't involve noodles or souvlaki.
Traditionally aged, yeast-leavened sourdough made with unbleached North American flour is blistered in a high-temperature electric oven. The crust is thicker than Neapolitan, yet airy, and hold ups well to take-out.
The clean, lean, expertly balanced sauce is made with San Marzano DOP tomatoes, extra-virgin olive oil and kosher salt. Although purists might balk at the rich cheese sauce, this fatty blend of Canadian mozzarella and Danish fontina has the heft needed to match such full-flavoured toppings as double-smoked bacon and pork crackling, spicy chorizo and raw jalapeno or house-baked ham and fresh pineapple.
On a short list of side dishes, you'll find beer-bison meatballs (also available as a pizza topping), house-marinated olives and bread sticks for dipping in dukkah (toasted hazelnuts and spices).
Drinks include a well-edited selection of mouth-watering wines and craft beer, available for rock-bottom prices during the restaurant's double happy hour, from 5 to 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. to midnight.
Bella Gelateria Yaletown
Location: 1089 Marinaside Cres.
City: Vancouver
Phone: 778-737-7890
Website: bellagelateria.com
Additional Info: Open daily, 8 a.m. (9 a.m. on Fri. and Sat.) to 11 p.m. Reservations for groups of eight or more.
Rating System: Cheap Eats
If you were a master gelato maker dedicated to old-world artisanship, Neapolitan pizza would make an obvious second course. James Coleridge, recently named International Gelato Master of the Year by the International Fair of Artisan Gelato, has expanded his Italian repertoire with bellissima pizza at his new location on Yaletown's False Creek shore.
A stickler for authenticity, Mr. Coleridge uses nothing but the best – San Marzano DOP tomatoes, Parmigiano aged 36 months, real San Daniele prosciutto and Italian burrata.
The pizza dough is made with Caputo "00" flour from Naples, but cooked in a gas-fired, not wood, brick oven. Modern conventions also allow for a great house-made gluten-free dough with chestnut flour. Toppings lean traditional – white anchovies, arugula, fresh ricotta, gorgonzola and fior di latte.
Bella has stellar salads, offers delicious artisanal wines and makes standout gelatinis (with a scoop of award-winning gelato in the cocktails). They're also open for breakfast and brunch.
If you're going to save room for something special, don't miss the desserts. Joanna Lopez, an up-and-coming pastry chef, makes "toe curling" (the name of said desert) creations with fior di latte gelato topped with dark, delicious brownies, candied pecans and caramel sauce.
Pizzeria Bufala
Location: 5395 West Blvd.
City: Vancouver
Phone: 604-267-7499
Website: bufala.ca
Additional Info: Open daily, 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. No reservations or take-out.
Rating System: Cheap Eats
This sure ain't Hell's Kitchen, the Kitsilano pizzeria that James Iranzad owned before he and Josh Pape opened Gastown's widely acclaimed Wildebeest. This Kerrisdale pizzeria shares a similarly gentrified downtown vibe with bearded kitchen staff, communal tables and a tendency to over-hype culinary trends.
Gorgeous bathrooms with copper fixtures trump a pleasant dining room outfitted with tall communal tables, window-side booths and an open kitchen adorned above with stark light bulbs and wooden paddleboards.
Rather than using the go-to Neapolitan "00" Caputo flour, the kitchen makes a pleasantly brittle dough from bread flour and Mr. Pape's family wheat flour (from Vancouver Island) with a sourdough starter. In a double-decker electric oven, the dough bubbles up crusty and pimply (it doesn't flop but can still be folded).
Popped crust can be anointed with house-infused oils (smoked ham, Parmesan, herb and chili) – all a little subtly underdone.
The Oxtail & Kale pizza needs more than stewed meat to raise it from its flat doldrums. The kale, browned and wilted, seems superfluous. It's working a trend needlessly too hard.
Mind you, the kale Caesar salad (albeit light on the anchovies) is a very nice rendition, piled high with crisp bacon and crunchy minced croutons.
Alexandra Gill