All pizza is good. This pizza is better.
Piccolo Buco, the century-old Roman pizzeria known for its extraordinary crust, is opening in Estero on July 13, its fifth US location and the first in Southwest Florida. Built on three ingredients, Italian-imported flour, sea salt and extra virgin olive oil, and shaped by decades of practice, Piccolo Buco Rome owner Luca Issa’s crust is tall and cloudlike with a crisp, substantial rim. It’s presented tableside and cut with scissors. A traditional pizza cutter would collapse what took decades to build.
The story of Piccolo Buco begins in 1916, just steps from Rome’s Trevi Fountain, where Luca Issa grew up working alongside his father before taking over the family restaurant in 2015. On a trip to Italy in 2019, Cooper’s Hawk Founder Tim McEnery was eating his way through Rome when he found it, fell hard for the pizza and brought it home for the rest of us.
“We’re excited to bring Piccolo Buco to Estero. A few years ago, as I was traveling through Rome, I came across the original Piccolo Buco and knew I had discovered something very special. The pizza was of course spectacular, but what struck me even more was the sense of community Luca had created around his family’s restaurant. This felt like a place that needed to be shared with as many people as possible,” said Tim McEnery, CEO of Piccolo Buco. “A perfect spot to grab a bite after a day in the Florida sunshine, Piccolo Buco is unlike anything else. It’s a little slice of Rome to bring guests together around a table of great food and great wine. We can’t wait to open our doors and welcome the Estero community.”…