Nicli Antica Pizzeria

It can be said without reservation that pizza is one of the most beloved foods on earth. This humble pie is not only one of Italy’s national treasures (the other of course being pasta), it is an international phenomenon.

If you’ve never had the opportunity to travel to Napoli to sample the real thing, you’re in luck. At Gastown's Nicli Antica Pizzeria you can bite into a slice of Neapolitan pizza that tastes so authentic, you’d swear you were sitting in a bustling piazza in the heart of Naples.

Nicli Antica Pizzeria’s owner Bill McCaig went to great lengths to make sure his pizza tasted like what he’d experienced in Italy; going so far as to have his popular eatery be the first certified Verace Napoletana pizza in Vancouver. (Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (VPN) evaluates the authenticity of Neapolitan pizzas around the world.)

Bill explains: “Under the VPN rules, an authentic Neapolitan pizza should have characteristics such as hand-made dough, ingredients preferably from Campania, sliced cheese as opposed to hand-sliced, and pizza cooked in a wood-fired oven for 60-90 seconds.”

Originally from Ontario, Bill went from running the family’s waste management company to attending Le Cordon Bleu Ottawa Culinary Arts Institute, before heading to Naples to learn pizza-making from the masters.

“I could never find that perfect pizza, so I decided I can’t be the only one here craving Neapolitan pizza … that was the start,” says Bill.