Antica Pizzeria PortAlba is a pizzeria in Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

, Italy, which is widely believed to be the world's first pizzeria.

History

First established in 1738 as a stand for peddlers, Antica Pizzeria Port'Alba was opened in 1830 in the town center at Via Port'Alba 18. The restaurant replaced street vendors who would make pizza in wood-fired ovens and bring it onto the street, keeping it warm in small tin stoves they balanced on their head. It soon became a prominent meeting place for men in the street. Most patrons were artists, students, or others with very little money, so the pizzas made were generally simple, with toppings such as oil and garlic. A payment system, called pizza a otto, was developed that allowed customers to pay up to eight days after their meal. A resulting local joke was that a meal from Port'Alba might be someone's last free meal, if they died before they paid. Additionally, patrons created poetry to honor the pizzas. Antica Pizzeria Port'Alba is still in business today, located between a number of bookstores. It is widely believed to be the world's first pizzeria.

Food

Since its creation in 1830, the eatery's ovens have been lined with lava rocks from nearby Mount Vesuvius

Mount Vesuvius

Mount Vesuvius is a stratovolcano in the Gulf of Naples, Italy, about east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is the only volcano on the European mainland to have erupted within the last hundred years, although it is not currently erupting...

. At the time of its creation, one popular pizza was the Mastunicola, topped with lard

Lard

Lard is pig fat in both its rendered and unrendered forms. Lard was commonly used in many cuisines as a cooking fat or shortening, or as a spread similar to butter. Its use in contemporary cuisine has diminished because of health concerns posed by its saturated-fat content and its often negative...

, sheep milk

Sheep milk

Sheep's milk is the milk of domestic sheep. Though not widely drunk in any modern culture, sheep's milk is commonly used to make cultured dairy products. Well-known cheeses made from sheep milk include the Feta of Greece, Roquefort of France, Manchego from Spain, the Pecorino Romano , the Pecorino...

, cheese, and basil

Basil

Basil, or Sweet Basil, is a common name for the culinary herb Ocimum basilicum , of the family Lamiaceae , sometimes known as Saint Joseph's Wort in some English-speaking countries....

. Basil and oregano

Oregano

Oregano – scientifically named Origanum vulgare by Carolus Linnaeus – is a common species of Origanum, a genus of the mint family . It is native to warm-temperate western and southwestern Eurasia and the Mediterranean region.Oregano is a perennial herb, growing from 20–80 cm tall,...

 were the most common herbs, while other toppings included seafood, buffalo mozzarella, cured meats

Curing (food preservation)

Curing refers to various food preservation and flavoring processes, especially of meat or fish, by the addition of a combination of salt, nitrates, nitrite or sugar. Many curing processes also involve smoking, the process of flavoring, or cooking...

, and cecinielli, small white fish still in development.

Augie Hoffman, a reviewer for Worstpizza.com, gave the pizzeria 6 slices out of 8, saying that, despite the faults he noted, he "really enjoyed eating there" and plans to revisit it. Hoffman's favorite part of the pizzas he ordered was the crust, which prevents the pizza from becoming "soupy" as happens in many other Neapolitan pizzas. Although he praises the mozzarella di buffala cheese, Hoffman says that nothing distinguishes it from other local pizzerias. The review also places the sauce in the same category. Hoffman was most disappointed by the toppings: the basil on the margherita pizza was "dry, flavorless, and burnt", and the diavola pizza features nothing spicy or "deviled".