Acunzo’s Margherita: it is rich in basil

by Monica Piscitelli

Here you will find a homely welcome, many pizzas and traditional Neapolitan dishes prepared with selected raw materials bought from reliable suppliers.

These are the strong points of the Pizzeria Acunzo in Cimarosa street. This restaurant was opened in 1964 and is one of those places which those who live in Naples can’t miss.

It is  historically connected to the Vomero fried food shop, a landmark for street food lovers of the rich hill neighborhood which was born at the end of the nineteenth century and spread out enormously at the beginning of the Fifties.  

This restaurant, between Kerbaker street and Cimarosa street, within a stone’s throw from Fuga square, was opened in 1938. Here you can find potato croquettes, dough, aubergines and pumpkin flowers in batter and fried polenta triangles. Filomena created it for his son Felice, as her granddaughter Caterina Acunzo, who manages Acunzo’s with her husband Michele Sorice, told me.

Near Fuga square: Acunzo’s Vomero fried food shop

Felice died before his time and so Raffaele started to manage the restaurant and a pizzeria was included about two years later. When he died his sons hold the reins: Felice who about ten years ago opened Acunzo’s in Aniello Falcone street, Patrizio who is the pizza maker, Antonio who manages the family fried food shop and Caterina who attends to the supplier relations and the cash desk and welcomes the clients with her husband.

 

Michele Sorice and Caterina Acunzo, they have been "Acunzo’s" since1971

Acunzo’s pizza has been told to be one of the best pizzas in the city for forty years. This pizzeria and the pizzeria Gorizia, opened in 1916, are the oldest in this neighborhood. Acunzo’s is the symbol of the typical middle class pizza which is different from the popular one of the historical centre where it was born: it is smaller and crisp and the border is well defined and soft. The leavening takes more than 12 hours and is one of the strong points of this restaurant which has been the first place where it is possible to find traditional and new pizzas prepared with vegetables typical of the Neapolitan cuisine like broccoli and peppers. The staff welcomes the clients with kindness and professionalism.

 

Acunzo’s in Cimarosa street: the interior

Michele Sorice, who Caterina defines “the only man in the world who has got his wife’s surname” dedicated all his life to take care of these aspects with competence and passion. He had experience in this field and managed a successful restaurant, Il Pignatiello, which was very fashionable in Ischia in the Sixties, with Toni Attolino, the ex owner of D’Angelo’s in Aniello Falcone street.

 

Aubergine gratin

Some pizzas, like the one with sausage and broccoli or the “Pulcinella”, have become really successful and are classic now. The Pulcinella pizza, the one with fusilli and the one with pasta and beans are a tribute to the Neapolitan habit of eating pasta: a savoury cake stuffed with pasta seasoned with Bolognese sauce, hard-boiled eggs, mushrooms cooked in oil with garlic and parsley, ricotta and “fiordilatte” cheese. In short, this pizza is a first course, a main dish and a side dish, as told by Michele Sorice.

 

Acunzo’s Pulcinella pizza stuffed with pasta

The restaurant menu includes dishes which change with the changing seasons. The starter includes the inevitable delicious fried food in the Italian style and the potato croquettes.

Potato croquette

 

Acunzo’s crisp and light fried food in the Italian style

There is a wide choice of side dishes. You will roughly spend 25 Euros for a meal including all the courses from the starter to the dessert. The dishes are classic. Regarding the first courses you will find spaghetti with clams and “scarpariello” sauce and as far as the main dishes go you will find braised octopus. The aubergine gratin, the broccoli, the marinated zucchini, the pepper salad and the fried green peppers are really cheap.

The wine and beer list includes a few Italian items and two wines produced by famous wineries.

Pizzeria Ristorante Acunzo
Vomero, via Cimarosa 60/62
www.pizzeriaristoranteacunzo.com
Phone +39 081 5785362
Closed on Sundays

Traduzione in italiano su http://www.lucianopignataro.it/a/napoli-ristorante-pizzeria-acunzo-locale-storico-del-vomero/16236/