In 1882 construction of the building at the corner of George & William was completed & subsequently the Grand Hotel officially opened for business. On May 1st, 2009 in the same historic location“The Grand” was re-born as“”. The restaurant has150 seats inside & during the spring, summer & fall months another 170 seats on the patio, making it the largest in the city! Combining old world traditional recipes with a modern décor, is an authentic southern Italian Restaurant with the centerpiece being traditional Napoletana Pizza from Naples, Italy, cooked in a specially constructed wood burning oven. This oven is situated in the middle of the dining room with our Pizzaoli working behind perfecting all of our pizzas.
To truly understand our concept you need to understand Napoletana Pizza.
A few words about Napolentan pizza;
The first Italian pizza, dating to 1830, was simply a basic round of bread with tomatoes baked in a wood burning oven or "forno a legna". It was in 1890 when Queen Regina Margherita found out about Raffaele Esposito's talents as a pizzaiolo in Port'Alba, Napoli that she made it a point to visit. Upon her arrival, il Signor Esposito created a special pizza for the queen, adding mozzarella to the basic tomato pizza. The resulting creation was dubbed the "Margherita" pizza named for her majesty.
An organization exists in Napoli named the Associazione Vera Pizza Napoletana that oversees the creation of authentic Neapolitan pizza. The pizza must have certain specific characteristics to be vera pizza Napoletana, or true Napoletana pizza. The dough must be hand pressed with Italian flour and the precise amount of water. The tomatoes are always Italian, usually San Marzano style and the mozzarella cheese (bufala mozzarella) is that from water buffalo in the region between Napoli and Roma. These are the ingredients with practiced hands and the special high temperature wood burning oven that make vera pizza Napoletana.
Come join us for the true taste of Italy right in the heart of the Byward Market!
