Antica Pizzeria PortAlba is a

pizzeria A pizzeria is a restaurant focusing on pizza. As well as pizza, dishes at pizzerias can include kebab, salads and pasta. Many pizzerias offer take-away, where the customer orders their food either in advance or at the restaurant and then take ...

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adm ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, which is widely believed to be the world's first pizzeria.

History

First established in 1738 as a stand for peddlers, Antica Pizzeria Port'Alba was opened in 1830 in the town center at Via Port'Alba 18. The restaurant replaced street vendors who would make pizza in wood-fired ovens and bring it onto the street, keeping it warm in small tin stoves they balanced on their head. It soon became a prominent meeting place for men in the street. Most patrons were artists, students, or others with very little money, so the pizzas made were generally simple, with toppings such as oil and garlic. A payment system, called ''pizza a otto'', was developed that allowed customers to pay up to eight days after their meal. A resulting local joke was that a meal from Port'Alba might be someone's last free meal, if they died before they paid. Additionally, patrons created poetry to honor the pizzas. Antica Pizzeria Port'Alba is still in business today, located between a number of bookstores. It is widely believed to be the world's first pizzeria.

Food

Since its creation in 1830, the eatery's ovens have been lined with lava rocks from nearby

Mount Vesuvius Mount Vesuvius ( ; it, Vesuvio ; nap, 'O Vesuvio , also or ; la, Vesuvius , also , or ) is a somma-stratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples in Campania, Italy, about east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is one of ...

. At the time of its creation, one popular pizza was the ''Mastunicola'', topped with

lard Lard is a semi-solid white fat product obtained by rendering the fatty tissue of a pig.Lard
entry in the ...

sheep milk Sheep's milk (or ewes' milk) is the milk of domestic sheep. It is commonly used to make cultured dairy products such as cheese. Some of the most popular sheep cheeses include feta (Greece), ricotta (Italy), and Roquefort (France). Sheep breed ...

cheese, and

basil Basil (, ; ''Ocimum basilicum'' , also called great basil, is a culinary herb of the family Lamiaceae (mints). It is a tender plant, and is used in cuisines worldwide. In Western cuisine, the generic term "basil" refers to the variety also k ...

. Basil and

oregano Oregano (, ; ''Origanum vulgare'') is a species of flowering plant in the mint family Lamiaceae. It was native to the Mediterranean region, but widely naturalised elsewhere in the temperate Northern Hemisphere. Oregano is a woody perennial ...

were the most common herbs, while other toppings included seafood, buffalo mozzarella, cured meats, and '' cecinielli'', small white fish still in development.

References

{{Restaurants in Italy 1830 establishments in Italy Culture in Naples Pizzerias Restaurants in Italy

History

Food

See also

References