Is Pepe in Grani the world's ultimate pizza restaurant? We rented a car and followed the roads to Caiazzo Italy to find out for ourselves.
For centuries, people have said that all roads lead to Rome. For us, all roads lead to Caiazzo, at least the pizza roads in Italy.
As professional food travelers, we travel far and wide to experience the world's best food. Renting a car to drive an hour for the best pizza in the world was a no-brainer for us since Daryl has stick shift skills and also because. pizza.
Our 50-kilometer drive was spectacular - filled with rolling hills, local, family-owned trattorias and centuries-old dwellings. We entered the narrow streets in the hill town of Caiazzo and found a city filled with ancient walls, hanging orange trees and jutting, winding stairways.
After a bit of searching, we found Pepe in Grani, the world famous Campania pizza restaurant, hidden among these alleys. Famed pizzaiolo Franco Pepe welcomed us with Italian coffee and introduced us to his world of pizza craft.
While living for a month in a Naples apartment and eating as much Naples pizza as our waistlines could handle, we heard rumblings that there was even better pizza outside the city.
Better than the best pizza in Naples? Inconceivable! We love the pizza in Naples!
These rumblings were about Pepe in Grani, a Compania pizzeria opened in 2012 and helmed by pizzaiolo Franco Pepe. Respected culinary professionals have sung their praises for Pepe and his restaurant Pepe in Grani. We're talking about people like Nancy Silverton, Emeril Lagasse and the late Jonathan Gold.
Intrigued, we reached out to Pepe in Grani and requested a reservation. A couple weeks went by with no response.
And then, just days before our month in Naples ended, we got an email inviting us to the restaurant with an opportunity to meet Franco Pepe. Score! Of course, we replied with a resounding yes.
Since our visit to Franco Pepe's temple of pizza gastronomy, Pepe in Grani has grown in popularity. The burgeoning YouTube generation has learned of Franco Pepe through the channel Alex French Guy Cooking, while Netflix audiences have vicariously experienced his legendary shop through shows like Ugly Delicious.
And, despite the restaurant's remote location, more culinary food tours are adding a visit to Caizzo to their tour itineraries. Sure, legendary pizza parlors like 50 Kalo, Da Michele and Sorbillo have branched out, opening new outposts in cities like London and New York. However, a journey to Caizzo and to Pepe in Grani is a singular experience, a pinnacle of eating in Italy.
There's no pizza in the world like Franco Pepe's. In this era of crazy global accessibility, we're okay that eating the best pizza in the world requires a special journey to the intimate, ancient, tight, dark stone alleys of Caizzo. For food travelers like us, it's worth the extra effort.
Franco Pepe has pizza running in his veins. After learning the pizza making ropes from his father and grandfather, this third generation pizza maker embraced the global slow food movement and took his family's trade to the highest level of pizza craftsmanship.
Commanding in the kitchen and passionate when he speaks, Pepe doesn't rest on the laurels that he has achieved. Quite the contrary - Pepe's work ethic reminds us of top chefs that we know in Philadelphia and New York. He demands excellence from himself, his staff and his products. Especially his products.
Pepe, a vocal proponent of the hyper-local food movement, exclusively utilizes ingredients from local farmers and producers. He goes out of his way to procure the best local ingredients like tomatoes and other vegetables from La Sbecciatrice, a nearby farm in Villa Santa Croce and olive oil from Ruviano's Petrazzuolo.
Pepe nurtures his relationships with these producers, which goes a long way. We witnessed this in action when we met one of Pepe's olive oil producers at the restaurant. Like us, he was all smiles in the home of pizza excellence.
As Pepe explained to us, it all starts with the flour. He uses a special blend of zero flour that is manufactured in Bari to his exact specifications, though he is also experimenting with new flour recipes using ingredients exclusively from Caiazzo. Pepe's pizza magic starts with that flour, but it doesn't stop there.
Pepe mixes the flour by hand and then lets the resulting dough settle for 12 hours in special wooden flour casks. As we watched the dough bubble like something out of a horror movie, the future pizza seemed to be a living entity, both scary and beautiful at the same time.
We expected to find a typical pizzeria in Caiazzo. We were wrong.
Pizzeria Pepe in Grani is located in a historic three-story stone building that could easily house a fancy restaurant. It has multiple eating areas, private dining rooms, spectacular views and two decked out hotel suites.
In other words, Pepe is offering a luxury destination dining experience fit for a wedding as well as for people who love pizza. We won't be surprised when, not if, Pepe in Grani earns its first Michelin star.
For our dinner, we agreed to skip the Pepe in Grani menu and do a tasting menu at the suggestion of sommelier Davide Guarino. We originally wanted to order full pies, but this would have meant that we'd only get to try a couple pies. Instead, by going with Pepe's pizza menu, we got to try a wide sampling of pies plus a few extra treats.
Visit 2foodtrippers for the full scoop, including photos, of everything we ate during our epic pizza feast at Pepe in Grani.
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