We are always in search of great Napoletana pizzas around the Bay Area, so much so that we made a collection of our top picks on foodie.com. The latest entry, Doppio Zero, opened last February in the downtown Mountain View area of Silicon Valley. For more than a dozen years, casual Italian trattoria-style ‘Pasta?’ restaurants operated first in Palo Alto and then later opened a sister location in Mountain View. Owner Gianni Chiloiro initially retooled the Palo Alto location into Figo late last year, then brought in new partner Angelo to revamp the Mountain View location into Doppio Zero.
Named after the super finely milled flour that Italians use for their pasta and pizza, it brings another authentic Naples-style pizzeria to Silicon Valley, complete with a very cool oven. Co-owner Angelo imported his brother Alberto, who has more than 20 years experience cooking in Naples, to act as Doppio Zero’s pizzaiolo and chef.
Doppio Zero has a full bar, and we perched ourselves at our favorite seats and ordered a Manhattan and a glass of Rosé Prosecco as our apperitivi:
They are open for both lunch and dinner, feeding the techies on a daily basis. Their dinner menu is separated out into Antipasti, Insalate, Primi, Pizze, Secondi and Sides (Contorni) with a few selections in each category. On our first visit, we tried to be healthy and ordered the Trecciolina Insalata made with organic arugula, hearts of palm, tomatoes, shaved Parmigiano and mozzarella cheeses in a lemon avocado dressing. It had the right amount of peppery bitterness and citrusy flavors that we like in our rocket salads:
Our ability to stay healthy was quickly dashed with an order of Calamari Fritti con Verdure from the antipasti section of the menu. The batter-fried squid and vegetables were seemingly grease-free and crispy great:
We’re eating Southern Italian style, so we naturally had to get a reasonably priced, medium-bodied Nausica Nero D’Avola from Sicily to pair with the rest of one of our meals:
It was time for our first pizza and we selected the Capricciosa topped with tomato sauce, homemade mozzarella, ham, mushrooms, italian salame, artichokes, black olives and basil. The crust was crisp with a bit of chewiness, and it was cooked just the way we like it: char bubble free. There was so much great toppings that each bite provided a different experience:
A picture of Pizzaiolo Alberto in front of the custom built pizza oven:
Pizza di Angelo, aptly named after the owner, also contained an excellent combination of toppings with 24 month aged Prosciutto di Parma, mushrooms, mozzarella, arugula, shaved Parmigiano cheese and truffle oil. As if it didn’t have enough topping, we asked if they could add an egg and they happily obliged:
They do have one Pizza Fritta on the menu where toppings are completely encased in a crust and fried (think of a very large pizza pocket). We’ll have to come back for that one day, but we wondered if Angelo could make a Montanara, a fried Naples style pizza we experienced at A16 Rockridge. Angelo made us one, Margherita style, which was very good with puffy and chewy crust, but not quite the same:
With a full bar, we decided on getting a bourbon whiskey for dessert, and they most certainly have generous pours:
Gianni came by and gave us a complimentary and excellent Tiramisu to share for dessert:
A great picture of Co-Owner Angelo with his brother Pizzaiolo Alberto:
We work in the Silicon Valley (how else can we afford to drink and eat out so much?), so we are very happy that Doppio Zero opened in Mountain View. They continue to expand the menu with different specials — we must come in when the offer the Star-shaped pizza where each point is filled with different goodies. They also hope to open for Happy Hour sometime soon, which may be detrimental to our work habits, but gives us something to look forward to.
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