5 Tel Aviv pizzerias - Restaurants - Israel travel and tourism

The poor immigrants who left southern Italy in search of a better life took pizza and pasta, the main symbols of Italian cuisine, to the ends of the earth. But broad distribution is not a sufficient explanation for the tremendous popularity of pizza the world over. Alberto Capatti and Massimo Montanari, two of the greatest historians of Italian cuisine, theorized that the popularity of pizza (which originated in Naples) derives from the fact that it is an entire meal in one dish. Relatively simple to prepare, pizza is rich in ingredients and flavors, and provides a feeling of satisfaction and makes it easy to assemble a meal - a significant advantage nowadays.

Pizza may be identified with southern Italy, but it can be made almost anywhere on earth. Modern agriculture has made pizza ingredients like flour and tomatoes relatively accessible and cheap all year round. And most important: It can make use of almost any local ingredient, from onions and olives to meats and sausages to dates in balsamic vinegar, pineapple or caviar.

Tel Aviv has recently been enjoying a renaissance of pizza and pizzerias. It may be just another passing fad, and it may also be that pizza, as opposed to hamburgers, is a fast and cheap food that still has a relatively healthful image.

Yariv Hadaro spent his childhood above a neighborhood pizzeria. True, it was a branch of Pizza Broadway, in Ra'anana rather than New York, but the smells and the taste filtered into the apartment above the shop anyway. At the age of 18 he came across the Tel Aviv pizzeria Big Mama for the first time in his life, when the shop was still located in the heart of the Carmel Market, and every visit included the promise of an exciting adventure. He swore to himself that one day he would be the owner of an Italian pizzeria.

Today his pizzeria is located on Bograshov Street, in a place which for years housed the veteran cafe Leon's. The pizzeria sign, made of hand-painted blue ceramic tiles, and the simple neighborhood design, are a salute both to Neapolitan simplicity and the first cafes in Tel Aviv. Simplicity is also evident in the name of the place, The Pizza. Above the stone arches of the wood-burning stove, where the family seal is usually engraved in Italy, there is a verse from the book of Proverbs: "Love covers all sins."

From this oven, tempting pizzas made from a very thin, slow-rising dough, emerge crisp and somewhat sour, covered with good tomato sauce, high-quality mozzarella and simple additions like pitted kalamata olives and fresh mushrooms. Simple, close to the Italian original, and delicious.

The excellent chili sauce is a reminder of its famous counterpart in the Pizzeria Spontini in Milan. That renowned and bustling institution serves pizzas made from a relatively thick dough, full of anchovies and a sauce of spicy peppers and olive oil.

Back to Bograshov, where there are also fresh salads, tasty focaccia bread, and airy home-made tiramisu. Soon there will also be coffee in the mornings, and Hadaro, who worked for seven years in quality control in the Arcaffe coffee chain, promises it will be excellent.

The Pizza, 15 Bograshov Street, Tel Aviv, 03-5281077

2. Elvis' new place

Once, when Big Mama was located in a hidden alley in the heart of the market and was one of the few eateries that operated all night long, it had an unforgettable dark and subversive charm. On the way there, customers would march past closed market stalls, piles of garbage and scurrying rats. The thin pizzas and the cheap young red wine that was served in workers' coffee cups made you forget the world's vanities. Then the pizzeria moved to a big building adjacent to the market place, and some of its charm was irretrievably lost. The pizza also seemed to become less tasty over the years and with different cooks, but the restaurant continued to operate for many years.

Boaz Kointer, the original chef, now lives far from Tel Aviv, in Mitzpe Hila in the Galilee, and prepares high-quality Italian meals in his home. Big Mama was recently closed; only the flourishing delivery service, which moved to another kitchen, remains. On its metaphorical ruins Oren Alkalay's Papa's was established.

Alkalay, called Elvis by some of his acquaintances, wandered all over America for years with a guitar on his back. Some of this time he spent in New York, where he worked in Italian restaurants. Afterward he returned to Israel, established Cafe Nona and the Shesek and Mishmesh bars, and now he is trying to realize an old dream - a cheap and exuberant Italian restaurant with red-and-white checked tablecloths and lots of table wine.

Papa's, 13 Najara, Tel Aviv, 03-5107373
(Papa's)

When Dalit and Ilan Bar decided to go into the ice cream business, they took it very seriously. The journey in search of the perfect ice cream included Italy, France and the United States. They took from here, they took from there, they adapted the percentages of fat, the flavor and the texture to the Israeli climate and character. Thus was born one of the best ice cream stores in Tel Aviv.

The journey in search of the perfect pizza, a dream that preceded the dreams of ice cream and was also born during the period when they lived in Milan, was conducted with the same perfectionism: a year of careful investigation, from Naples in the south to Milan in the north, four months of experimentation and tasting dough in the baking kitchen with Ofra and Avi Ganor, the owners of the Manta Ray restaurant (who are also partners in the new pizzeria) and many months of creative thinking on the subject of toppings.

Thus were born pizzas with dough that is thin and crisp in the traditional Neapolitan manner. The variations and improvisations on the ingredients are closer to the American spirit. Volcano pizza has bubbly orange cheese that blends with spicy sausages and chili; bianca pizzas, without tomato sauce, feature artichoke cream, mozzarella, ham and seared tuna; another has sweet potato cream, bacon and potatoes stir-fried in butter.

This pleasure ends, as is proper for a pizzeria whose owner is also an ice cream manufacturer, with a tempting variety of ice cream cakes and other desserts. In addition to the familiar Iceberg flavors - like chocolate- orange or the sorbet of apricots, amaretto and almonds - there are new offerings, like lemon pie with meringue. The person responsible for this new flavor is Laurent, the dessert chef, who also prepares such delights as hibiscus flower jelly with berries and sugared leaves, or a caramelized fresh pineapple tartar with verbena ice cream and almond cookie.

Iceberg Volcano, Hangar 11, Tel Aviv Port, 03-6026000
(Iceberg Volcano)

There is no ethnic group as identified with the kitchen as are the Italians in America; film and television have created unforgettable images of that. Immigrants do in fact tend to preserve their culinary traditions long after other cultural features such as language and clothing disappear. Tony Soprano and Primo in Stanley Tucci's "Big Night" both prove this point.

Pizza Pazza and Amore Mio, the Eldar family's home-style restaurants, may be the Israeli institution that is closest to the cinematic image of a family-owned Italian-American trattoria. Large men with beer bellies in striped chefs' pants who throw pizza dough into the air; a large, skilled staff constantly on the go between the crowded tables; and the bustle of families, young couples and more or less elegant businessmen who fill the space. The thick pizza dough, and especially the pitted olives and canned corn should perhaps be updated, particularly in light of the new competitors in the city. But it's hard to argue with the longstanding success and pleasant atmosphere.

Pizza Pazza, 102 Ibn Gvirol Street, Tel Aviv, 03-5239303

The tomato has become so identified with Mediterranean cuisine in general and Italian food in particular that it is hard not to fantasize about Nero chomping on pizza Margarita or gobbling some Neapolitan spaghetti. But the tomato arrived in Europe only after the discovery of America, and came to Italy, via the Spanish influence, only 400 years ago. Actually, some of the best pizzas at Tony Vespa, the new pizzeria owned by the Yerezin brothers, contain no traditional tomato sauce.

On the square surfaces of these pizzas, which are sold by weight, there are quantities of bacon chunks, which along with smoked cheese lend the excellent dough all the fat and moistness it needs. The primavera pizza offers a colorful vegetable garden of cucumbers, arugula, tomatoes and mushrooms. Even better is the pepperoni, with chunks of salami seasoned with black pepper peering out through the tomato sauce, and the classical Caprese salad with mozzarella cheese and kalamata olives.

The dough is thicker than the usual Neapolitan variety, brown and crisp on the bottom and perfect for absorbing the sauces. The concept, including dough and toppings, comes from a successful neighborhood pizzeria in Rome.

Tony Vespa, 256 Dizengoff, Tel Aviv, 03-5460000