From Naples, With Love

While there's been some dispute over whether or not Chicago deep dish pizza is actually pizza, there's no doubt that the pizza served at Ravenswood's Spacca Napoli is some of the best in the city. The pizzeria has been serving up authentic Neopolitan-style pizza since 2006 and has drawn attention for its ability to recreate the characteristics of this style so perfectly.

The BF and I stopped by on a Friday night with our newly-engaged friends, Maddy and Mike. The dining room was buzzing and there was a 35-40 minute wait. We came prepared to wait and staked out a spot near the wood-burning oven. There's no bar at Spacca Napoli to grab a drink while you wait, however, the staff takes drink orders and conveniently adds your order to your tab for later. We sipped on some Italian beers and were even given a sample of pecorino cheese while we waited. I was as happy as one could be while watching others down their beautiful pizza pies.

Our quoted wait ended up being a little shorter and we were seated and greeted by our pleasant server. We were all starving so it didn't take long for us to decide on one antipasti and two pizzas to share. We kicked things off with the Prosciutto e Rucola with prosciutto, arugula, parmigiano reggiano and olive oil. The prosciutto was a generous portion and had a beautiful smokey flavor. The arugula added a nice peppery taste and the cheese was strong and salty.

Prosciutto e Rucola

After we devoured our salad, it didn't take long for our two pizzas to arrive. We chose two pizzas with tomato sauce, the margherita and the salsiccia. The traditional margherita was topped with mozzarella, basil and pecorino gran cru. I loved how the tomato sauce and mozzarella were sprinkled on top but didn't overpower the crust. You could really taste the quality of each of the ingredients this way. The crust had the perfect char from the wood-burning pizza oven, and delicately balanced a crispy and chewy texture. 

Margherita

Our second pizza was basically the margherita topped with Italian sausage. This was the favorite of the table because of that extra flavor from the hearty sausage. The ingredients were plentiful and fresh and we demolished both pies in record time.

Salsiccia

Next time, I'm definitely ordering a wide variety of pizzas, including a white pizza with olive oil instead of red sauce. Everything we had was delicious and that crispy/chewy crust was pure perfection.

I'm giving Spacca Napoli 4.5 ghosts for their friendly staff, superb pizzas and very reasonable prices. I officially have a new favorite thin crust pizza in Chicago!

Spacca Napoli
www.spaccanapolipizzeria.com
1769 W Sunnyside Ave
Chicago, IL 60640