Photo via Facebook / San Giorgio
While I am not reporting to you from the Amalfi Coast, I have found a bit of it in Downtown Milwaukee. San Giorgio Pizzeria Napolenta is a perfect slice of Italy for an (appropriate) staycation this summer. On the corner of Kilbourn and North Old World Third Street (or MLK drive), Calderone Club’s Gino Fazzari brings more of Italy to us Milwaukeeans with the only Vera Pizza Napiletana verified spot in the city.
Executive chef Robin Brown is the beautiful Italian man straight out of your dreams (or the latest Disney movie Luca) passionately explaining to me the history of Neapolitan pizza and his lineage in this small American city. Brown explains that while the pizza in Naples is the original, it differs depending on who you ask. “It was always the same amount of dough,” but the illusion of a bigger pie is what differentiated it from town to town, shop to shop. His words ring true today in the pizza world.
As a former New Yorker, I crave a Little Italy experience more often than is probably healthy. I miss the lights, the music, the dessert, the coffee at every hour—but here it’s all possible. Chef started me with zuccotto de melanzane (fried eggplant stuffed with fresh ricotta, Fiordilatte mozzarella, and a bit of Neapolitan sausage ragu), and the house favorite arancini (or suppli if you’re in town from Chicago). Next, we move to the heavier stuff that dreams are made of.
Chef surprised me with an off-season gnocchi with gorgonzola, mushrooms, and walnuts. If that wasn’t enough, next came paccheri alla genovese with 24-hour ragu. And for the main event came the special double calabrese equipped with a yellow cherry tomato sauce, smoked mozzarella, and double spores sage calabrese. Wow.
I’ve died and gone to Italian heaven as Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald play “Cheek to Cheek” while I wined down. Another score for the Midcoast.
