The Main Line Experiences a Pizza Renaissance, Redefining the Local Pizzeria Culture

The Main Line and its surrounding suburbs are experiencing a pizza renaissance, as dough-slinging chefs with sharp skill sets are lining up to specialize in authentic brick and wood-fired pies. With the recent pizza boom well deserving of your attention, we’re lining up the newcomers’ slices below.

It started with veteran restaurateur Scott Morrison. Morrison, aside co-owner Vince Schiavone, was on a mission to bring proper pizza to the Main Line when he introduced their fine-tuned pizza joint and suburban trattoria to Devon in early July, identified as Avero Craft Pizzeria. A mix of authentic and inventive pies define the menu, baking in a copper-clad, wood-burning oven. The carefully crafted tartufo pizza deserves time in the limelight, due to its layers of farmhouse cheddar, black truffle and fresh mozzarella, finished with a locally sourced egg cracked on top as it bubbles in the oven.

Then, Dave Magrogan teamed up with chef Anthony DiPascale to introduce his newest concept Stella Rossa to Downingtown in early August, which sets out to be an approachable Italian bistro with sexy twists. Seasonally changing, wood-fired Neapolitan pizzas are broad strokes of the food menu, which includes combinations like the Gaetano (broccoli rabe, house-made sausage, asiago), the Meta e Meta (half pizza, half stromboli), and the Vesuvio, with long-hot pepper pesto.

Next came Bar Lucca in mid-September, Brian Pieri’s second Conshohocken-based restaurant that featured an approachable Italian concept specializing in rustic brick-oven pies like the Margherita, the mortadella, and the aglio (garlic aioli, broccoli rabe, coppa).

Just last week, Frank Nattle of Phoenixville’s Vecchia Pizzeria confirmed that he intends to set up his second parlour on the Main Line, prepping to unleash a focused menu of wood-fired Neapolitan-style pies out of the Suburban Times building, next door to Great American Pub (134 N. Wayne Ave.). At his premiere location, everything comes straight from Naples, Italy: the flour, the buffalo mozzarella, the San Marzano tomatoes, even the wood-fired oven, which is made out of Mount Vesuvius stone. You can expect the same authentic touches at his coming-soon second spot.

And, just as Nattle stated that his second location is “very real,” the father and son team behind Andorra Shopping Center’s pizzeria, DiMeo’s, announced that they were expanding in downtown Wayne too—at 133 N. Wayne Ave. Restaurateur Scott Stein partners with the DiMeos for the coming-soon restaurant, which will be identified as Mozzeria and arrive spring 2014 as an osteria-styled BYOB with a strong focus on wood-fired pizzas.
 

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