Bocconcino’s New Weekend Pizza and Vino Nights Feature a Champion Neapolitan Pizzaiolo
With Italian wine from the shop, it’s a perfect way to spend a summer evening.
Photo: Thomas Obungen
“Back again?!” Donato Loperfido says from behind the counter at Bocconcino.
“What?” I reply. “Don’t you like seeing me here two days in a row?”
I’m back at Loperfido’s Kaka‘ako gourmet shop and restaurant because a day earlier, as I was devouring a Bolognese sandwich there, his wife invited me to check out the new dinner service: pizza and vino on Friday and Saturday nights in the open-air dining space next to the shop (which remains open with the full menu). She had me at vino.
Leonardo Stefanini. Photo: Thomas Obungen
Pizzaiolo Leonardo Stefanini has been bringing Bocconcino’s take on Neapolitan pizzas to life using the shop’s assortment of imported ingredients. A Brazilian of Italian descent, Stefanini works the oven on weeknights at San Paolo Pizza and Wine in Waikīkī. Since graduating from Scuola Italiana Pizzaioli in 2017, he’s taught classic Italian pizza making and placed third in the World Championship for Neapolitan Pizza. In other words, he has serious pizza cred.
SEE ALSO: New Latin Foodscape: All In, Brazilian-Style, at San Paolo Pizza & Wine
Menu highlights on pizza and vino nights include Bocconcino’s iconic Bolognese sandwich in pizza form—a pistacchio e mortadella pie ($24) with basil and pistacchio pesto, fresh house-made mozzarella, slices of mortadella di pistacchio, stracciatella, extra virgin olive oil and pistacchio crumble. There’s also a pie based on carbonara with beaten egg, pecorino romano and cracked black pepper ($24), and another topped with creamy stracchino cheese and a handful of black truffle slices ($25). A Nutella and strawberry pizza ($18) is also available.
Photo: Thomas Obungen
Order at the counter and take the ticket out to Stefanini when you want him to fire it. Because Loperfido also runs Flavors of Italy Wine Merchants, he’s got a decent selection of vino on the shelf and in the fridge. You might even want to partake in a tasting (if they have one) to find a wine you like. If you buy a bottle, you can ask them to open it, get a couple of glasses and enjoy it outside. Eating a pizza without vino is like trying to eat soup without broth–it just isn’t complete!
SEE ALSO: Donato’s Fresh Cheese-Centric Bocconcino Café Opens in Kaka‘ako
Outside, it’s dinner and a show as the pizzaiolo pulls, presses and tosses a dough ball into a pizza round. He tops it with sauce and cheese before placing it into the 900-degree oven. In seconds, black spots bubble up on the edges. Stefanini uses a peel to spin and check the bottom crust so it cooks evenly inches from the flame. The whole pie is done in under 90 seconds. He pulls it out and hands it to an assistant, who slices and finishes it with more toppings. Their dance around the oven looks choreographed, spare and without wasted motion.
At the communal table, my friends and I split a bottle of Zambon’s Durello “Vulcano” Spumante, a stunner for $22 with zippy acidity, fine bubbles, food-friendly minerality and hint of fruit. I’m picking one up next time I need a quaffable aperitif.
Photo: Thomas Obungen
We dive into our pizzas as soon as they arrive. Each pie has four large slices that you can fold in half and eat with your hands. Unless you bring your own, there are no plates or utensils. Typically, Neapolitan pizzas have a floppy wet center that requires a fork and knife, but you can skip them here.
Photo: Thomas Obungen
My two friends and I all put away a slice from each of three pizzas and have leftovers to take home. The crust isn’t overly doughy and has a lovely chew that supports the load of toppings, which can overpower a weak crust. We unanimously love the pistacchio mortadella as it checks all of our boxes: flavorful, hearty and texturally balanced. The Nutella and strawberry pie is not unlike an Italian crepe, and we appreciate our sweet ending with really good strawberries. Although it’s simple and tasty, the truffle pizza could benefit from one more topping to make it stand above other truffle-flavored pies in town.
SEE ALSO: Wait, There’s Legit Neapolitan Pizza and Other Food Trucks at a YMCA?
Our conversation is far from over, so we pop a second bottle of wine–this time rosé–and a round of melon granitas. I pour my wine into my granita cup for an impromptu froze and immediately feel like the smartest and coolest person in the room. I could drink that all night long.
We stay until closing. By 7:30 or 8 p.m., every table is occupied, and Stefanini is slinging pizzas left and right. This is exactly where I want to be on a breezy summer night, with my glass and a slice close at hand and conversation that doesn’t end.
Available Fridays and Saturdays 6 to 9 p.m., 978 Kawaiaha‘o St., Kaka‘ako, bocconcinohi.com, @bocconcinohawaii
Thomas Obungen is the associate editor of Frolic Hawai‘i.
