Rocca Pizzeria, the new Neapolitan-style restaurant concept in Mid City, is set to open next week.
The restaurant had a 7,000-pound wood-fired oven shipped in from Italy and renovations to the building, which is at the corner of East Drive and Government Street, are complete. Owner Ozzie Fernandez says he’ll finish training the staff in the coming week, and plans to open for dinner service next Wednesday. The restaurant may only do dinner service for the first week, but will eventually be open seven days a week for lunch and dinner, he adds.
Fernandez and Gary Kovacs, the founders of the fast-casual concepts Lit Pizza and Izzo’s Illegal Burrito, decided to bring a more authentic pizza concept to the Mid City area last year and set out to renovate the building formerly home to the Goûter restaurant.
The menu boasts small plates like wood-roasted bone marrow, saffron arancini and baked rigatoni with pork ragu; charcuterie boards featuring cured meats, aged cheeses, mostarda and olives; and the restaurant’s main focus, wood-fired pizzas. Those will include “Mr. Piggy,” with mortadella, sausage, bacon, roasted pork and mozzarella, as well as a pizza with freshly-sliced prosciutto and another with fried oysters, among others.
“It’s going to be a tremendous lineup,” Fernandez says. “We got some star power in here helping me with the menu.”
The beverage menu will include a dozen draft beers, cocktails and wine. Fernandez also highlighted his partnership with Fullness Organic Farm and Iverstine Farms, which will supply the restaurant with produce and meat.
“We’re trying to bring in as much local produce and other items for our program here as possible,” he says.
The pizzeria was initially set to open last summer, but permitting delays held up renovations.
—Sam Karlin
