Stracci pizza, located in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria, VA, serves Roman pizza, a style I have not had before. So I can’t compare it to other Roman pizza. But I can say that this is one of the great pizzas of my life.
The dough undergoes two day of fermentation. The bottom is rigid and very crispy, but also it is light and airy. I ordered their very basic pizza, with a simple tomato sauce and straciatella and basil. It was glorious.
The rectangular pie comes in six slices. I’d say that two people could enjoy this while sharing an appetizer of caponata or gigante beans for a complete meal.
Thanks very much for the report. I’m always interested in any Roman related pizza styles so will make sure to stop in and check it out. Would you mind also posting this in the pizza thread so it comes up if anyone checks that as well?
One of the perfect meals of the DC area: the stracci pizza, the white pizza with anchovy and salsa verde, an order of caponata, and the winter salad with its hit of fresh citrus. A glorious meal. Only open for dinner, unfortunately.
And just to clarify, it does not look like Roman pizza, from what I can tell on You Tube videos. Plus it is not like the Roman pizza at In Bocca al Lupo, which I find to be like eating pizza on a cracker.
I like Stracci quite a bit and would recommend it as well. A bit of clarification might be useful here however:
There are 2 main styles of Roman pizza. Stracci is (broadly) taking inspiration from one of them and In Bocca al Lupo is taking inspiration from the other.
You don’t happen to like one of those styles which is fine. I and many other Romans (and Italians) do and it’s a good thing to finally have something approaching it as an option here.
I got the stracci pizza here last night and for the first time ordered it with garlic, which comes out as delicate slices. OMG, I felt like a teenager again. Each slice seems to be weightless. Nothing but air. Yet filling.
They had a special with bone marrow which was tempting, and if I came here more often I might have indulged.
Stracci is about a mile from my house and it took me until last night to make it there. We stood outside near the heat lamps for about 45 minutes until it was our turn at an outdoor table. Three of us shared a Brooklyner and a Stracci Bianca, along with caponata and meatballs. Everything was delicious and because we were at the rear of the outdoor eating area, we had front row seats to see the pizza assembly in a trailer, then transport half way across the yard where someone from inside the building took the pizza inside to be cooked. Pizza choreography.
I’ll be dreaming about that pizza for some time to come
