Pupatella offers a slice of Naples

By Justin Rude
Friday, December 31, 2010; T10

Located in a small strip of shops on traffic-heavy Wilson Boulevard just west of Ballston, Pupatella, a 45-seat Neapolitan pizzeria, is hardly in a glamorous neighborhood.

Yet walking in the door, you are met by a chic over-the-top design, heavy with vivid paint, colored lights and kitschy retro furniture, that could easily make the restaurant hold its own among the District's hippest spots.

One bite of the margherita pizza produced by the restaurant's wood-fired oven takes a visitor even further from the address-based expectation. The slightly chewy, well-salted crust dressed with a light tomato sauce, sprinkled with basil and spotted with molten pools of tangy buffalo mozzarella lets you know that you are in serious pizza country.

Pupatella stands as a welcome challenge to the idea of dumbed-down suburban dining.

Restaurant owners Anastasiya Laufenberg and Enzo Algarme opened their first operation, a tiny cart, outside the Ballston Metro station in 2007. From that space they cranked out some of Northern Virginia's best pizza. In May of this year they moved their operation indoors. As with any restaurant opening, there were kinks at first, as Naples-born and -trained pizzaiolo Algarme worked to scale up the operation. A half a year later, things seem to be clicking.

On the menu: The pizzas hit all the Neapolitan high notes: crusts spotted with char, uncooked sauces made with little more than crushed, salted tomatoes and light toppings that never get in the way of the core components of crust and sauce. Options run the gamut from the original margherita to one that uses the familiar pairing of prosciutto and arugula and another that puts sauteed mushrooms and brie over a white wine garlic sauce. There are also weekly (seasonally considered) pizza specials, which are among the most popular with the restaurant's regulars.

Appetizers include arancini, fried balls of risotto stuffed with mozzarella and either eggplant or peas and sausage; Caprese salad and bruschetta. The menu also includes a pair of salads, one with baby arugula, prosciutto, shaved Parmesan and balsamic dressing, and a baby spinach, roasted tomatoes and red onion salad that gets a bit of pop with sweet white anchovies.

Desserts include rotating specials, such as a homemade tiramisu, and other standards, such as gelato that is locally made by Gianluigi Dellaccio of Dolce Gelati, a friend of Algarme's and fellow Neapolitan.

At your service: The tiled wood-fired oven is centrally located in the restaurant, and pizzas are ordered and paid for at the counter. The staff is often very busy moving pies in and out of the oven, but never too busy to pause to chat up their guests, help them navigate the menu or discuss the specials. Carryout is an option, though Pupatella doesn't take phone or Web orders from 6 to 8:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays due to the heavy in-house traffic.

Wet your whistle: The menu has a tight selection of mostly Italian wines, and bottles of wine are $10 off with an order of two pizzas.

Bottom line: In a city crowded with Neapolitan pizza options, Pupatella is among the best.

Kid-friendly: The restaurant has highchairs and a kids' pizza. A June entry on Pupatella's blog lists "Lots of cute babies at the restaurant" as a highlight from the previous weekend.