A new pizzeria is dishing out 15 varieties of red- and white-sauce pies on Ninth Street North in Naples, and it's staying open until 1 a.m. most nights of the week. La Pizzeria opened its doors at 304 Ninth St. N., tucked right next to the Italian market its owners already run, bringing a menu built around hand-stretched dough and imported Italian ingredients to the Trinity Plaza corridor.
Sicilian brothers Luca and Valerio Di Falco opened La Pizzeria in September, positioning it next door to their existing business, Mercato Italiano, according to gulfshorebusiness.com. The brothers also operate Mercato Italiano, which specializes in imported Italian products and has served panini, pizza and croissants since opening in June 2021, per Mercato Italiano's website. With the new pizzeria next door, the Di Falcos now run a pair of connected Italian concepts in the same Naples plaza.
Luca Di Falco said the goal for La Pizzeria goes beyond the food itself. “It's going to be a place for good food, good pizza, but mostly making friends and connecting with the community,” he told the outlet. As WINK News reports, the brothers want the restaurant to connect people and offer a taste of Italy.
What's On the Menu
Diners can choose from 15 varieties of Pizze Rosse or Pizze Bianche, the restaurant's red- and white-sauce pizzas, alongside a trio of gourmet specialty pies and two calzone options, the report notes. Classic options include Margherita and Marinara pizzas, while the more adventurous Alessandro white pizza piles on pistachio pesto, fior di latte, mushrooms, mortadella, stracciatella cheese and a pistachio crumble. Another specialty, the Alex pizza, swaps in charcoal dough topped with carbonara cream, crispy guanciale and pecorino romano.
Beyond pizza, the menu stretches into pasta and starters, with lasagna and eggplant parmigiana rounding out the entrees and arancino, bruschetta and burrata leading the appetizer list, the same account notes. La Pizzeria's own website describes a dough-making process built around premium Italian 00 flour, hand-stretched and slow-fermented for more than 72 hours for lightness and flavor. The restaurant also says it uses San Marzano tomatoes from Campania's volcanic soils and a fior di latte mozzarella made from Italian milk imported directly from Italy, according to La Pizzeria's website.
Hours and Happy-Hour Deals
La Pizzeria is open Tuesday through Sunday from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. and closed Mondays, per the restaurant's reported hours. Twice a day, diners can catch a break on price: happy hour runs from 4 to 5 p.m. and again from 10 p.m. until closing, with food discounted 50 percent during both windows.
A Style Decades in the Making
The late-night, ingredient-driven approach echoes a broader shift in how Neapolitan-style pizza has taken hold in the U.S. Authentic Neapolitan pizza, characterized by well-fermented dough, a blistering-fast cook in a superhot wood-fired oven and minimal toppings, didn't gain mass popularity in North America until around the turn of the century, according to pmq.com. By November 2019, the organization that certifies authentic Neapolitan pizzerias counted 600 certified locations worldwide, with 120 of them in North America, per the same trade publication.
For now, La Pizzeria joins its sibling business, Mercato Italiano, as part of a small cluster of Italian-rooted concepts along the Ninth Street North corridor in Naples. Together, the Di Falco brothers' two storefronts offer everything from imported Italian groceries to late-night pizza and pasta just steps apart.
