It was just over a year ago when WEs Andrew Morrison reviewed Vancouvers first true Neapolitan pizza joint, Gastowns Nicli Antica Pizzeria, and proclaimed it the best pizza in Vancouver. Since then, weve been in the midst of a veritable pizza renaissance, with at least a handful of similar restaurants opening up shop.
Thankfully, Vancouvers appetite for chewy, thin-crust pizza doesnt appear to be waningand neither does the charge that Nicli (named after the owner Bill McCaigs Italian mother) is still the best pizza in town. WE named it one of the top ten restaurants in 2011 and the 40-seat restaurant is almost always full, leading us to believe that Vancouverites agree.
The pizza is baked in a scorching hot wood-fired oven (thats been imported from Naples and made using stone from Mt. Vesuvius) for a mere 90 seconds, giving it an airy, crunchy crust with a bit of char. Ingredients are simple, bright, and as local as possible.
The word on the street is that McCaigs new venture, a high-quality Italian eatery and market, Vicino Pastaria and Deli, is set to open in a couple of months. Right next door to Nicli on East Cordova (certainly a market- and food-store starved neighbourhood), the joint will feature homemade casual pasta and deli fare, specialty signature items and sauces, and long-table seatingall presented with the same authenticity the crew brought to their first endeavor, of course.
