Pizza Watch: Joe Cicala’s R&D trip to Italy
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
VPN certification coming our way!
We already knew that Le Virtu chef Joe Cicala was serious about his pizza game but it looks like he's upping the ante for his next venture, Brigantessa (1520 E. Passyunk Ave.).
Construction has already begun on Brigantessa, an enoteca/pizzeria/birreria slated to open on East Passyunk this summer and Cicala is currently in Italy doing some in-depth pizza research. According to a post on Facebook, Cicala flew to Rome yesterday where he's boning up on his pizza al taglio (Roman-style by the slice) skills and then heading down to Napoli to get his AVPN (Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana - true Neapolitan pizza) certification. For more info about VPN pies, head over to this helpful Slice guide.
As far as we know, Cicala's is going to be the second pizzeria in the Philadelphia area to boast AVPN certification (Pizzeria DiMeos has one too) and that means that there are going to be some very exciting pies coming out of Brigantessa's ovens.
