On Saturday afternoon, I was fortunate to see the ~DEL POPOLO~ pizza truck in action, and taste one of Jon Darsky’s superlative Neapolitan-style pies (which none of us have had since he left flour + water). As previously profiled in tablehopper, this custom truck is really something to behold. It was fun to watch people walk by and stare at this impressive pizzeria on wheels—which includes a 5,000-pound, wood-fired Stefano Ferrara oven—all housed in a shipping container with windows and clear doors, so you can observe the entire operation.
There were two kinds of pizzas on offer on Saturday, a margherita and a white pie with wild radish rapini and garlic, only $7 (these were test-run prices). Moving forward, the cost should be around $10-$12. The cashier will cut your pizza for you as soon as it’s out of the oven and put it in a box, which will become your mobile table for the next 10 minutes or so (of course I still managed to get sauce on my shirt).
Darsky’s margherita is such a pleasure to eat—once it cools down a little, see if you can eat the slices without folding them so you can taste all the disparate elements of the pizza instead of mashing it all together. You’ll notice the pop of the olive oil he finishes the pies with, the creamy cheese, the bright tomato sauce, and, of course, the way the char from the oven layers even more flavor onto his fantastic (and elastic) dough.
The Del Popolo truck’s opening is tonight at 5:30pm at Bar Agricole (at 355 11th St. at Folsom), and it will be parked in the lot next door—guests can eat their pizza on the patio. Uh-huh, sounds like you should get a drink with that pie. I also saw a tweet mentioning lunch at Mint Plaza this Thursday. Follow @pizzadelpopolo to keep up with the truck’s future locations around the city. Yeah, this will be the ultimate truck to hire for private parties.
The cashier counter is on a lower level (and take a look at that Stefano Ferrara oven). Photo: © tablehopper.com.
