While there is no shortage of great pizza in the city of Austin at places like Home Slice, Salvation Pizza, and Via 313, its western suburbs (Lakeway, Bee Cave, Spicewood) have quickly become even more of a Pizza Mecca.
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| Roman style pizza at Baldinucci |
The Detroit style pie at Via 313 (which also has suburban locations in Oak Hill and Round Rock) has been my top pizza in the region for a while, holding a small edge over the other stellar options like the Neapolitan pizza at Sorellina and the New York hybrid "old world" pies at Lake Travis Pizza.
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| Detroit style pizza (Sunny Hill, Seattle) |
Great new pizzerias keep coming; we're now blessed with authentic Chicago pan pizza at Lefty's Pizza Kitchen, just west of Bee Cave. And now there is a new contender in Baldinucci Pizza Romana, which makes both New York and Roman style pizza.
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| Roman style at Forno Marco Roscioli |
I first experienced Roman pizza ten years ago at Forno Marco Roscioli in Rome. Of course, it's not called "Roman style" in Rome; it's known as "al taglio" or "by the slice" pizza. In Italy, Roman pizza is baked in long rectangles, and slices are sold by weight. Typically, a Roman style pizza is baked in a pan and it's thicker than New York or Neapolitan pies, though not as thick as a Sicilian style pizza.
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| Interior at Baldinucci, Westl Lake Hills |
It was about six years after my experience in Rome until I had another slice of that kind of pizza; in 2018 Philadelphia suddenly had *two* new Roman style pizza restaurants. Alice (ah-lee-chay) Pizza and Rione Pizza were both wonderful, and I got to sample several kinds of slices at both places before moving to Texas a year later.
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| "Al taglio" slices at Rione, Philadelphia |
I said goodbye to this style of pizza upon settling in Texas, but on a trip to New York in 2021, I made a detour to Scotch Plains NJ so that I could sample the slices at Massa Roman Square Pizza, and they were spectacular.
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| Roman pie at Massa, Scotch Plains NJ |
With that as background, it was exciting to learn about the opening of Baldinucci in West Lake Hills. The original location in Austin switched to "catering only" as of October 2022, but the newer West Lake location is a full-service pizzeria with limited seating.
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| "Full tray" at Baldinucci |
There are a lot of specialty pizzas on the menu, but we opted for relative simplicity by ordering a "full tray" of the "Nonna" Romana pizza, which included mozzarella, fresh crushed tomatoes, fresh garlic, grated Romano cheese, oregano, fresh basil, and E.V.O.O. We chose a sausage topping after first confirming that the sausage is applied raw so that it cooks on the pie (the only proper method).
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| A slice of the "Nonna" at Baldinucci |
The best way to enjoy any pizza is at the pizzeria, with the pie fresh out of the oven. But our dinner plans dictated that we get the pizza for takeout; at home I reheated it for about 10 minutes at 350 degrees on a perforated pan. I'm pretty confident that the pizza didn't suffer from its journey or the reheat.
This rectangular pizza, from the box to the table, was as beautiful as a work of art. Golden crust with bold red sauce and the varied textures of cheese and sausage, all topped with artful ribbons of fresh basil.
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| Crisp, golden, perfect underside |
Like any great pizza, the crust was the star. It was perhaps the deepest Roman style pizza I've had, almost as thick as a Detroit style pie. It was brilliantly crispy on the bottom, with a hefty but somehow airy interior that had the right chewiness and flavor that could stand on its own.
The vivid red sauce was chunky with a bright taste that stood up to the other flavors. The cheese had an ideal texture; the mild mozzarella was complemented by the salty tang of the Romano. The crust, sauce, and cheese alone would have been a perfectly balanced pie, but the sausage topping added one more element of texture and flavor. And it was terrific sausage; its taste was a standout even riding on the other superb elements.
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| From www.baldinucci.pizza/our-food |
All told, this was about an ideal marriage of flavors, visuals, and textures. A fabulous and flawless pizza, and a top contender for not just the best pizza in the Austin suburbs, but the best in the entire Austin region. There wasn't one thing I'd change about this pie, and I can't wait to have it again.
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