Major Neapolitan pizza truck Pizzeria DOP to open Eugene restaurant

About a week before we were set to publish our guide to Eugene’s very best eating places, I produced a exclusive excursion down the valley to attempt a handful of spots I experienced missed, such as Pizzeria DOP, a pizza truck that hadn’t popped up in my preliminary research.

It was a stunning late June working day, and I uncovered the Neapolitan pizza truck parked not at its standard Thursday place at Oakshire Brewing, but in the ton future Civic, an amphora-aged vineyard, wine bar and culinary hub that shares a setting up with noteworthy brunch spot Lion and Owl. There, operator Rocky Maselli and his group ended up making ready to ferry pizzas from the truck’s wood-fired oven to a home stuffed with international sommeliers in city for an Oregon Wine Board party.

It was a fortuitous face (and not just for the reason that former Park Avenue Wines co-proprietor Stacey Gibson snuck me a glass of Civic’s pét-nat dolcetto, a cherry soda of a wine perfectly paired with pizza). Turns out, Maselli will be expending a great deal far more time all over these components, with options to open a whole-fledged cafe in a area hidden at the rear of a white garage door at the back of the Civic great deal this slide.

I really do not frequently publish about Eugene restaurants. But with the Planet Athletics Championships coming to city July 15-24, we went all-in on Oregon’s next-most effective dining city, viewing dozens of dining places to publish the most in depth tutorial to Eugene’s food scene readily available. And Maselli isn’t your standard Eugene prepare dinner. Apart from currently being the previous chef at Marché (and the son-in-law of its trailblazing founder, Stephanie Kimmel), Maselli researched classic pizza-making in Naples and ran the kitchens at San Francisco and Oakland’s critically acclaimed A16 dining places. In 2017, he returned to Eugene and Marché, then launched Pizzeria DOP in 2020.

At the truck, Maselli provides both strictly wood-fired and montanara-model pizzas. For the latter, pies are evenly fried then completed in the 800-diploma oven. The system offers DOP’s prolonged-fermented dough a comforting quality that Maselli compares (favorably) to the pies at Pizza Hut, primarily when topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella, refreshing basil and a drizzle of olive oil in DOP’s classic margherita.

This slide, those pies will be joined by salads, contemporary pastas, cafe cocktails and more at Osteria DOP, a new cafe opening in a room powering a garage door at the back again of the Civic parking good deal. As Maselli tells me about his hopes to incorporate a number of tables and chairs at the again of the Civic lot, the white-painted dome and bell tower at Eugene’s Initial Christian Church lends the scene a delicate Italian vibe.

Will Osteria DOP be a hit? That’s as well early to explain to. Osteria Sfizio, Maselli’s previous Eugene Italian cafe, only lasted two decades. But that montanara-style margherita I experimented with in June would evaluate favorably to any Neapolitan pizza you care to mention in the Northwest.

Appear for Osteria DOP to open up in Oct at 1122 Oak St. in Eugene.

— Michael Russell, [email protected] @tdmrussell