Review: Pizzeria Casa Nostra - Spicewood, TX

Spicewood TX, an unicorporated community with 7,942 residents 22 miles northwest of Austin, may be best known as the home of Willie Nelson's Luck Ranch. The two-room schoolhouse there saw its last graduating class in 1949 when the school system merged with Marble Falls. 

TripAdvisor's list of top dining destinations in Spicewood is heavy on BBQ joints, Mexican food, road houses, and diners. As a recent transplant, I get the feeling that people in Spicewood are the real Texans.

The old schoolhouse in Spicewood

With that as background, I'm astonished to report that there are *two* superb pizza places in Spicewood, less than ten minutes from my home  - Pizzeria Casa Nostra and Sorellina Pizzeria.  Nearby Bee Cave has two fine pizzerias too, the St. Louis flatbread pizza at 'Zza and the Texas-twist-on-NY pies at Toss.

During my first six months as a suburban Austinite, I often made the 10 minute drive to Sorellina, each time driving past Pizzeria Casa Nostra. My snap judgment was that this might be gimmicky pizza, and I based that on thinking that the name was a play on "cosa nostra."  I now very much regret that it took me so long before I finally visited.

I've visited three times, and found great appetizers, pizzas, and service each time. With a large group on my first visit, I was able to sample the caponata (eggplant) appetizer, and it was superb. It's wonderful how eggplant thrives in so many ways in different cuisines - Italian, Greek, Lebanese, Chinese, and more. 

Carbonara pizza

The  memorable focaccia bread is finished with coarse sea salt, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, rosemary, and grated Parmigiano Reggiano, but it's basically a pizza crust so it may be a tad redundant if you're here for the pizza. It does give you a preview of how great this pizza can be, because every top grade pizza depends on the crust.

Salsiccia e Funghi pizza

The true measure of any Neapolitan pizzaiolo is the Margherita, and it shines here. The pie man is still so new to America that his English is limited; meanwhile, he's turning out some wonderful pizza from the authentic dome oven. 

Every pizza is perfectly cooked, with no wet centers and a well-considered balance of ingredients. The simple Margherita ($11) rides on a delicate and puffy yet crisp crust with a tangy red sauce married to the mozzarella with basil and extra virgin olive oil.

The Salsiccia e Funghi ($13) pie may be my favorite, where the tomato sauce and mozzarella is topped with Italian sausage in real chunks, mushrooms, and onions. 

Casa Nostra is only the second place where I've seen pizza ala tonno, rendered here as a white pie with mozzarella, tuna, carmelized onion, Kalmata olives, and pine nuts. I love it, just as I did the red version at Enzo's in the Bronx.

Imported, just like the pizzaolo

I relish egg on pizza any way I can get it, and the Carbonara pie here is lovely, but its subdued flavors seem best suited to breakfast. What's not to like about mozzarella, bacon, scrambled egg, Parmigiano Reggiano, and parsley riding on this impeccable crust?

Perfect char underneath

As the spread of Neapolitan pizza grows deeper into the American suburbs, we can celebrate that many of the new pizzerias make a hybrid Neapolitan, with a crisper crust that can better stand up to the amount and variety of toppings that make American pizza a worthy category all its own. Soupy centers may be hip in Naples or Milan, but a crisp bottom rules in my pizza world.

The bar inside the dining room

Beyond the great food and previously mentioned service, Casa Nostra has a friendly, casual, and very Texan ambiance. The ranch-style interior is open and airy, and curiously was once the home of the Down Under Deli/Draughthouse that for a time offered "Boomerang Pizza."

I genuinely expected that I would need to make the 18 mile trip to Downtown Austin in order to get great pizza, heading for Salvation Pizza, Via 313, or Home Slice.  I'll still do that, but there is world class pizza right here in my (and Willie Nelson's) backyard.