Outside the pizza box
Cavalli's peppers the unusual amid traditional fare with certifiably yummy results
Special to the Star-Telegram
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The local pizza scene keeps getting better, with new places upping the ante nearly every month. Gourmet toppings, delicate thin crusts, and even wood-burning ovens have all become common in the area, helping diners to leave behind their old diet of generic chain pizza.
Cavalli Pizza introduces the latest benchmark: This mom-and-pop spot on the northern outskirts of Irving has an accreditation from the American branch of the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, an organization founded in Italy in the 1990s by a group of Neapolitan pizza makers who wanted to standardize the process.
Owners Paul and Clara Cavalli, who moved here from Connecticut to open this restaurant, underwent training in California to gain the "VPN" stamp of approval. They say they're the only pizza place in Texas, and part of a limited group of U.S. pizzerias, with that distinction.
That specification includes: the use of special imported "00" flour, kneading the dough slowly and baking the pizzas in a wood-burning oven for 90 seconds. No matter if thin-crust authentic-Italian pizza is your favorite -- you've got to appreciate the Cavallis' attention to detail and the consistency of their pizzas.
Whether the Margherita Extra ($8.95) with San Marzano tomato sauce imported from Italy, buffalo mozzarella, basil leaves and olive oil; or the "Dallas" ($9.25), a meat-lover's pie with scrambled meatball, sausage and pepperoni, the pizzas were very good. The crust was soft and chewy with lightly browned edges -- light and fulfilling, not sinking into your stomach.
One of their most unusual pies was the Bismark ($8.65), topped with mozzarella, ham, basil, olive oil and -- egg. You don't see egg on a pizza around these parts very often. Right before Paul put the pizza into the oven, he cracked open a raw egg onto its surface so that when it emerged, it had cooked into a sunny-side egg right in the center of the pie.
With toppings this unique, it seems a waste to order a conventional pie. To that end, Cavalli's sausage and scrambled meatball weren't that nicely textured or flavorful. Its panini sandwiches ($6.95-$8.95) were pretty good, with the toppings serving as fillings, tucked into super-thin bread pockets that looked like pitas. Eggplant parmigiana ($6.95) had a generous filling made from slices of rather-too-firm eggplant with sauce and cheese.
There are also a couple of salads and dessert pizzas ($4.95-$8.95), including one topped with chocolate-hazelnut spread and marshmallow called "S'Mores". There is no alcohol, though Cavalli's allows customers to BYOB. One peculiarity: The restaurant is closed on Saturdays. While the area mostly draws a workday crowd, it's still unusual for a restaurant to be closed on a Saturday night.
Part of a new center with numerous restaurants coming soon, Cavalli's space was bright and clean, with pretty tile framing the wood-burning oven, and signs everywhere proudly proclaiming their VPN status. You gotta play up your strengths.
Cavalli Pizza
3601 Regent Blvd. Irving
972-915-0001
Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday-Friday; 1 to 9 p.m. Sunday
Essentials: Major credit cards; smoke-free; wheelchair-accessible; BYOB
Signature dish: Margherita Extra pizza with basil and mozzarella di Bufala
Cost: $7-$12 per serving
Signature dish: Margherita Extra pizza with basil and mozzarella di Bufala
Recommended for: Pizza-philes
Good to know: The restaurant is closed on Saturdays. No kids menu.
