In Italian the word alberello means sapling. When I think of a sapling, I think of new growth and everything associated with that. Ideas like the future, new opportunity, the potential for greatness.
A fresh start.
It’s an interesting name for the pizzeria at 15th Street and Lonsdale Avenue, a venue with quite a story. You see, Alberello used to be called something else, under the same ownership. Its concept was virtually the same as it is now and I even did a review of it not long after opening; I found the pizza, prepared in the traditional Neapolitan style, to be very good and the service kind and efficient.
And then something happened. A disgruntled customer’s angry, heavily shared post on social media channels took a turn for the worse as people who had never once stepped foot in the venue chimed in from thousands of miles away, spewing libelous vitriol purely on the basis of hearsay. I won’t go any further into the details of the dispute as I have no desire to rekindle that fire or reawaken unpleasant memories for the pizzeria’s ownership. I will say that the entire affair remains to me a fascinating example of how mob mentality works and surfaces important issues concerning accountability and truth on self-monitored social media platforms.
In any event, Albarello Pizzeria was born in the wake of this inciting incident, like a seed that has taken root in the freshly charred soils of a forest following a wildfire. Despite its allusion to newness, Albarello is wise beyond its years, its success hard won in a tough market where everyone can wield an opinion like a blunt weapon.
I have been to the pizzeria at least half a dozen times over the last couple of years and feel genuinely happy when I see its tables full. I have experienced nothing but kind service in the venue and I remain a fan of their pies and pastas, which I sampled again recently on a rainy weeknight visit with my family.
Alberello riffs on the classic pizza Napoletana, a heavily protected standard for the traditional, Caputo flour crusted pizzas of Napoli. Their 30-centimetre, hand-tossed pizzas are baked for a short period of time at a staggeringly hot temperature in a traditional stone forno, yielding a crust that is pleasingly singed and bubbled in parts. Alberello’s crust is perhaps a bit thicker and less chewy than a genuine, certified Neapolitan pizza, and their toppings a bit denser, but the overall approach is very much rooted in classic pizza territory. Recipes range from the very traditional like the Marinara, topped simply with tomato sauce, garlic, olive oil, basil and oregano, to the more adventurous, like the Alberello, made with fennel sausage, roasted potato, mozzarella, mushroom, chili oil and fresh parsley.
The Dagenais group descended on the restaurant and occupied one of their spacious booths. The parents sipped a bright orange Aperol Spritz (a traditional Venetian cocktail of bitter orange spirit and Prosecco) while reviewing the lengthy list of pies. Alberello offers well priced kids options that include Penne Pomodoro and Margherita Pizzas to which additional toppings may be added at $1 to $2 each. We ordered an appetizer of meatballs and a Caesar salad to start, and were impressed with both. Three hefty, juicy meatballs arrived slathered in fresh, tangy tomato sauce topped with parmesan cheese and a little bouquet of greens. The Caesar salad, which was accompanied by delicious housemade croutons of pizza dough, was a novel twist on the classic with surprising notes of mustard in the creamy, garlicky dressing.
My two girls went for the penne for their mains and enjoyed the simplicity of the dish. I detected the bright, fragrant lift of good olive oil in the sauce, but it was well integrated and the pasta remained kid friendly.
My wife DJ went for the Ricotta Spinaci pizza, made with artichoke heart, mozzarella, ricotta, red onion, kalamata olive and fresh baby spinach. My general observation about Alberello pizzas is that they are generously topped and a single pizza, priced between $11 and $18, is sufficient for two people. My second observation, more of a heads-up, really, is that the pizza descriptions on the menu are exhaustive, meaning that if something is not listed on the menu, the pizza won’t contain it.
And so it was that DJ’s pizza was not made with tomato sauce, as expected. As it happens, the omission was not a deficiency of any kind as the pizza was rich, filling, and sufficiently moist despite its saucelessness.
I chose the Salsiccia, half of which I took home, bested by its weightiness. My pizza was topped with tomato sauce, fennel sausage, mozzarella, caramelized onion, and roasted red peppers. The sausage was lean and delicious with heady fennel notes and the cheese, which the menu bills as “aged mozzarella” had a richness and depth of flavour unusual for pizza cheese.
DJ and I both enjoyed a glass of ripe and rustic Montepulciano, the fruit-forward, inky red specialty of Italy’s Abruzzo region.
We finished our meal with a shared order of Alberello’s Tiramisu, a silken, velvety interpretation of the coffee-steeped classic, topped here with a luscious crème anglaise.
We took home the equivalent of a full pizza plus a meatball. Before gratuity, our meal was $135, or about $27 a head, including the cocktails and wine, as well as juices for the kids.
Alberello is located at 115 West 15th St. in North Vancouver. Alberellopizzeria.com. 604-770-4484.
