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Spacca Napoli - Chicago

molto e

By molto e
in The Heartland: Dining

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molto e

molto e

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Spacca Napoli

1769 W. Sunnyside

Chicago, Ill.

773-878-2420

With all the discussion of the best pizza in Chicago centered on the deep dish style, I have wanted to try the place most choose as the best Neapolitan style pie in town...Spacca Napoli. I went for an early lunch while the prep was being done for the day. Spacca prides itself on importing as much of the ingredients as possible from Italy.

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Imported Italian Mozzarella getting ready to meet some pizza

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Goodies

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Menu

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Daily Specials

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Where it all happens...

We started with some nibbles before the pizza...

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Prosciutto e Buffala

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Olives

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Our order being made with the egg getting cracked on the pizza and into the oven

We ordered a few pizzas to share:

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Rustica - mushrooms, olives, tomatoes, basil, mozzarella

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Lasagna - tomatoes, prosciutto cotto, pomodorini, ricotta, mozzarella

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Marinara - tomatoes, garlic, oregano, basil, olive oil

and my favorite

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Bismark - speck, egg, mozzarella

The pizzas were well crafted and tasty with the right balance of the toppings. When I am in the mood for this style of pizza in Chicago, Spacca Napoli is my top choice.

Eliot Wexler aka "Molto E"

MoltoE@restaurantnoca.com

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yellow truffle

yellow truffle

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Eliot, That Bismark looks spanktastik. Lunch is IMHO the best time to go when you can walk in and easily get a table and not have to wait too long for the food. I am pretty impressed with their Margherita, simple basic and consistent. Although I am a little shocked that it took you this long to try it out. Slightly off topic and non Neapolitan style pizza thin crust contenders are Coal Fire and Crust.

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molto e

molto e

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Eliot, That Bismark looks spanktastik. Lunch is IMHO the best time to go when you can walk in and easily get a table and not have to wait too long for the food. I am pretty impressed with their Margherita, simple basic and consistent. Although I am a little shocked that it took you this long to try it out. Slightly off topic and non Neapolitan style pizza thin crust contenders are Coal Fire and Crust.

YT,

We did not try the Margarita, next time...have you tried Coal Fire?

Molto E

Eliot Wexler aka "Molto E"

MoltoE@restaurantnoca.com

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yellow truffle

yellow truffle

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Eliot, That Bismark looks spanktastik. Lunch is IMHO the best time to go when you can walk in and easily get a table and not have to wait too long for the food. I am pretty impressed with their Margherita, simple basic and consistent. Although I am a little shocked that it took you this long to try it out. Slightly off topic and non Neapolitan style pizza thin crust contenders are Coal Fire and Crust.
We did not try the Margarita, next time...have you tried Coal Fire?

Have not yet been. They are only open for dinner. When do you want to go.

BTW, the ham and cheese (Prosciutto e Buffala) is so gratuitous. I am not sure if this has been checked pleased, but the quality still looks good. Them crusts are holding up.

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LindsayAnn

LindsayAnn

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And me! I wanted to join Tammy the other Egullet crew while she was in town this past Wed/thurs for dinner at Moto...however I am sad to admit that is not in my budget. These are the times I hate being a graduate student with little money to waste on the better things in life.

However, I know I could def. afford Spacca Napoli!

"One Hundred Years From Now It Will Not Matter What My Bank Account Was, What Kind of House I lived in, or What Kind of Car I Drove, But the World May Be A Better Place Because I Was Important in the Life of A Child."

LIFES PHILOSOPHY: Love, Live, Laugh

hmmm - as it appears if you are eating good food with the ones you love you will be living life to its fullest, surely laughing and smiling throughout!!!

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KateinChicago

KateinChicago

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I've been meaning to try Spacca Napoli for some time but Elliot's gorgeous photographs finally sent me over the edge and I drove the mere 5 miles to get there today.

I loved the pizza I ordered! It was a special with porcini mushrooms, truffled cheese and truffle oil. The porcini tasted fresh not reconstituted and the truffle aroma was really intense. I felt like I was back in Italy!

Kate

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molto e

molto e

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I've been meaning to try Spacca Napoli for some time but Elliot's gorgeous photographs finally sent me over the edge and I drove the mere 5 miles to get there today.

I loved the pizza I ordered!  It was a special with porcini mushrooms, truffled cheese and truffle oil.  The porcini tasted fresh not reconstituted and the truffle aroma was really intense.  I felt like I was back in Italy!

Kate

That one sounds great...I did not make it there off the bat because it seemed more out of the way than it really is.

Eliot Wexler aka "Molto E"

MoltoE@restaurantnoca.com

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KateinChicago

KateinChicago

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I've been meaning to try Spacca Napoli for some time but Elliot's gorgeous photographs finally sent me over the edge and I drove the mere 5 miles to get there today.

I loved the pizza I ordered!  It was a special with porcini mushrooms, truffled cheese and truffle oil.  The porcini tasted fresh not reconstituted and the truffle aroma was really intense.  I felt like I was back in Italy!

Kate

That one sounds great...I did not make it there off the bat because it seemed more out of the way than it really is.

Isn't that the truth? I realized I was only 5 miles away when I map quested it. I will be there often now that I know how easy it is to get to.

Thanks for photo incentive!

Kate

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nsxtasy

nsxtasy

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I think we have a pizza tour brewing up here.

You know, I think that's a great idea - try a whole bunch of Chicago-area pizza places! Thin crust at Spacca Napoli, a stuffed pizza place, a pan pizza place... It could be over a period of time - say, every other week for a couple of months - or, if out-of-towners want to join in, then maybe do a big pizza weekend, maybe 3 pizza meals over a 3-day weekend, along with some other non-pizza place or two.

Oh wait, I think they're doing that right now, downtown... :wink:

Edited by nsxtasy (log)
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  • 10 months later...
elfin

elfin

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My girlfriends and I dined at Spacca Napoli this weekend. The atmoshpere is charming and the service friendly and attentive. My only objection (shared by my fellow diners) was the lack of basil. We ordered the buffalo mozarella with procuitto(sp). The ball of cheese was huge and very soft and the meat was generous as well. There were two leaves of basil under the cheese. The dish came with a small side of toasted italian bread dipped in olive oil and fresh minced basil(or parsley-hard to tell believe it or not). We needed two more sides of the bread which was promptly served. The dish needed more basil. We asked for extra basil and it was served without any problem. Maybe we were just changing the recipe but it seemed lacking. We ordered two pizzas-one with mushrooms and sausage. The mushrooms were button mushrooms and were flavorless. Due to the small serving we thought the mushrooms would be a bit less pedestrian. The sausage was marvelous. We ordered the Diavlo(sp) which is like their Pizza Margharita but with a spicey sauce with crushed red peppers. It was tasty. The crusts are nice but both pizzas needed more basil (two small leaves were placed in the middle of the pies( which we supplemented tableside. The chocolate truffle dessert was nothing special but I am not a big mousse fan. The place is very popular and there was a wait when we left.

What disease did cured ham actually have?

Megan sandwich: White bread, Miracle Whip and Italian submarine dressing. {Megan is 4 y.o.}

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joiei

joiei

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I have never heard of this restaurant, where is it?

It is good to be a BBQ Judge.  And now it is even gooder to be a Steak Cookoff Association Judge.  Life just got even better.  Woo Hoo!!!

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  • 2 months later...
prasantrin

prasantrin

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Does Spacca Napoli allow you to choose your own toppings? I like the looks of the crust, but I'm looking specifically for the combination of anchovies, capers, and olives (in Japan and in one supposedly Neapolitan-style pizza place in Winnipeg, it's a combination referred to as "Napoli" or "Napolitana"), and I don't see anything like that on their current menu. Bismarck is usually my second choice, but there's no Bismarck on the current menu, either.

Regarding Neapolitan-style pizza baked in a wood-burning oven, how does A Mano rank against Spacca Napoli? A Mano is closer to where we're staying making it more convenient, but Spacca Napoli is do-able if the pizza is much better than A Mano's.

(edited for spelling. Oops!)

Edited by prasantrin (log)
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prasantrin

prasantrin

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Bismark is usually my second choice, but there's no Bismark on the current menu, either.

What kind of pizza is Bismark? (I assume it's not filled with sweet jelly... :biggrin: )

It's with speck and egg (I've had it with a different kind of Italian cured ham--not prosciutto, but something similar). The runny egg is very important, in my opinion. You can see a picture up in molto e's first post in this topic--the last two pictures are the Bismarck.

A related story--I asked a student why she liked Germany so much and she replied, "I really like Bismarck." I replied, "Doughnuts?" :blush:

(oops, it's Bismarck not Bismark!)

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  • 2 weeks later...
prasantrin

prasantrin

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We arrived on the Megabus yesterday afternoon and after a brief respite at the hotel, we made our way to Spacca Napoli. It was a long-ish bus ride in rush hour traffic (about 40 minutes), and upon arriving near the restaurant, I saw the sign at the corner of the building, but also saw that the windows were papered up. "Oh no!" I thought. It can't be closed! Luckily, upon walking closer we saw some occupied patio tables and the rest of the restaurant. Whew!

I did a brief glance at the specials and the menu. I asked our server about the Bismarck, and it was not available that day. :sad: He did offer, however, to add an egg to another pizza I was contemplating ordering if they had fresh eggs available. I thought that was very kind of him to want to fulfill my wish of a runny egg yolk on my pizza. I gratefully declined, and then asked about if they had pizza with anchovies, capers, and olives. They didn't have that, either, but he said they would be happy to make one for me! This time, I accepted.

My mother ordered a pizza from the menu--something with mushrooms, sausage, basil, and I don't know what else. I don't remember seeing tomato sauce on it, so it may have been a white pizza.

A little background--in Japan pizza napolitana is amazingly good, but in Winnipeg, where I've been spending the summer, not so much so. For the last few weeks I've been craving good pizza, and complaining about how wood-burning ovens in Winnipeg are wasted because they're turning out crap. My mother just rolls her eyes and says something like, "Sure sure, everything in Japan is better."

Now she understands what I'm talking about. The crust at Spacca Napoli has that perfect combination of crisp and chew. And it has those lovely uneven burnt bubbles around the crust (one of my bubbles looked like a large facial mole sans hair gone awry). I didn't try my mother's pizza (I do have two leftover pieces waiting for me in our hotel room, though), but she really enjoyed it. It was loaded with toppings, and was too heavy to eat without a fork. I prefer a lighter hand with toppings for this type of crust, but she liked the heaviness. My pizza was almost perfect--my only complaint is that they use whole anchovy fillets. I prefer them to be mashed or chopped, and then sprinkled (so the flavour isn't too concentrated).

In Winnipeg, whenever I've asked for chile-inflused olive oil, I've been greeted with a pause and slight confused look, then at one place was told, "No," and at another they gave me something different (garlic, rosemary, sun-dried tomato, and chile infused olive oil). At Spacca Napoli when I asked I was told, "Of course!" :wub"

The tiramisu, by the way, is a steal at $4. It was lightly sweetened, and rich without being cloying. After we realized it was only $4, we thought we should have bought more to take home.

I'll definitely be back. Perhaps not during this trip, but when I'm back living in Winnipeg and am craving Naples-style pizza, I'll be making a trip to Chicago!

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WarblyTremolo

WarblyTremolo

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When Spacca Napoli opened I had the great luck of living a mere two blocks east on sunnyside ave. I stopped in on a weekly basis for pizza - they have a VERY impressive setup. Temperature and Humidity controlled basement for making sure the dough is mixed in the exact same manner every time. The proscuitto is to DIE for.

It's definitely my favorite pizza in the city, hands down. Anyone who hasn't gone is doing themselves a disservice!

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