Foodtour 2014 Day Two: Dough Pizzeria Napoletana

I'm going to confess something mildly embarrassing to you. 

I planned this entire trip around one restaurant. Everything else was just gravy.

And that restaurant was Dough Pizzeria Napoletana. 

Dough in all its glory. 

Swoon. 

Yes, you heard me. We drove five hours just to eat at a pizza joint. But Dough is no ordinary pizza joint. If you're expecting your standard pepperoni pie here, you'll be sorely disappointed.

In the best way possible. 

Dough does pizza in the way that Serendipity does hot chocolate: deliciously, extravagantly, beautifully.    

I first visited Dough about two years ago, soon after it appeared on Food Network. It was a small restaurant squeezed in a strip center, near another store that sold musical instruments and a storage facility. Despite its size, the line to get in was out the door. We waited, I kid you not, two hours.

Caroline waiting outside of Dough

And still thanked them for the privilege later.   

Fortunately, the restaurant has expanded since then, taking over the neighboring storage facility, decreasing wait times and making pizza lovers sigh with relief.  While Dough has become more accessible in that way, the prices hold steady at expensive. If you're eating at Dough, I caution you to have some to spare. Dough, that is. 

What sets Dough apart is the house-made mozzarella.  Writing on the door reveals the restaurant operates "until the fresh mozzarella runs out." And it's delicious: the cheese is a feature in just about every dish on the menu. In addition, they receive help from local breweries and farms for other supplies... It's community-enriching food from a good conscience.  

And that, my friends, is worth the wait and expense. 

So you arrive and you're waiting on a table... What do you do first?

Head to the bar and pick up a glass of Dough's house red. 

Eventually we got to go inside

I haven't sampled the entire wine menu. I can tell you that the wines are specially selected and that almost no glass weighs in under $10. If you plan to have a few, I highly suggest buying a bottle. 

Once you are seated, you'll get a chance to look over the menu. DO start with an appetizer. I highly recommend the truffle marscarpone burrata, shown below. 

That's beautiful marscarpone, encased in the aforementioned mozzarella on a bed of heirloom tomatoes, surrounded by a balsamic reduction. Our waiter, who was a gem, suggested proscuitto on the side. 

Um, yes. 

It was served with herbed flatbread... a sinfully delicious combination. But save room, because next is the pizza. 

There's not a bad option on the menu, but I recommend the "pork love," which features just about every kind of bacon imaginable. 

We had the featured pizza, which included braised proscuitto and veggies. It was also quite delicious, but the "pork love" reigns supreme in my affection...