Food and place porn: Pizzeria Locale's opening night

By Laura Shunk Wed., Jan. 26 2011 at 5:04 PM

Laura Shunk

"There's no other style of pizza in the world that's as geeky as the Napolitano style," chef Lachlan MacKinnon-Patterson said last night, as the pace started to pick up at Pizzeria Locale during its first official dinner service. "And we're trying to do it exactly right."

"Makes our jobs pretty hard," added Bobby Stuckey with a grin.

Hard, first of all, because the two, who also own Boulder's Frasca Food & Wine (where, yes, I once worked), were unwilling to cut corners on anything, including their equipment. And that delayed the eatery's opening by two months after their first pizza oven, meant to be constructed in the space, was held and destroyed by U.S. Customs because of soil in the box. After that tragedy, the Ferrara family built the group another oven in Italy and shipped it whole; it took a crane to get the massive thing into place.

"But in Naples, pizza's only considered to be done right if it's made in one of two ovens," explained MacKinnon-Patterson, dismissing the idea of finding a domestically made substitute. "The Ferrara is one of them." Getting the right oven was key, because Stuckey and MacKinnon-Patterson wanted a true Napolitano pizzeria, not a Napolitano-inspired pizzeria. And so they scrutinized every detail -- from the decor to the dough -- to make sure that their new place was as close as they could come to a joint in that city in Campagna.

Behold the fruits of their labor.

Rob Christensen

Like the original Frasca, Pizzeria Locale has a dining room that's sleek and beautiful, full of dark woods, marble and clean lines. But it has the air of a pizzeria, too. Photographs by Dave Woody, a local photographer who was recently contracted to do portraits for the Smithsonian, depict scenes from Naples displaying graffiti, dirty streets and colorful characters. And fluorescent lights, a raucous noise level and choice decor details extend that theme further.

Location Info

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Pizzeria Locale

1738 Pearl St., Boulder, CO

Category: Restaurant

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Pizza Girl

Wow, nothing like waiting for 20 minutes and having 3 different people running the front that have no idea what the other is doing with zero customer service. Telling us the bar was first come first serve, then telling us to move when we found a spot on our own, telling us we now had a spot at the bar then having another person tell us that we could not sit there... again, seating a table of 4 that walked in 20 minutes behind us who "just so happened to be lucky that they had a 4 top" available. Nice, nothing like making customers upset by seating people that walk in behind them. This restaurant needs some serious organization, communication improvements , and needs to up it's overall quality to justify charging almost $20 for an individual pizza. The atmosphere is lacking warmth and I felt like I was at the doctors office. Being able watch the pizza makers would be nice if you didn't have to hear the arrogant comments about how wonderful they were. Come on! I'm pretty sure a few months has not made the young boys all experts just yet. Maybe with time the restaurant will improve, but hubris can be quite dangerous.

giulio

Una pizzeria genuina e giusta con delle pizze deliziose. Bravo Don Roberto e Donna Danette per questo regalo favoloso a Boulder ; ci vedremo li spesso ( giulio, :-)

Randy

Great article Laura!I love your workAre you single ?and ready to mingle? Ill buy the first lunch date

Rtschuh

My wife Kelly loved the place so much on opening night, she insisted I bring her back the next day for a late lunch. Done

Jimrome

Went there for dinner after the KU game. The food was great, the service even better. Everyone from the busboy to the manager was very hospitable. The best of the pizzas was the ?Diavolia? It had smoked mozzarella, a spicy sopressata and a drizzle of chili oil. Cant wait to see what they do after they have been open for more than 9 hours.