Antico Pizza Napoletana in Atlanta

Antico Pizza Napoletana in Atlanta reminds us of Roberta's in that both serve stellar pizza and they both do so in environs that could pass as a warehouse. We didn't eat any other pizza while we were down in A-Town, but after Antico, we didn't see any reason to. Our host for the weekend picked us up from the airport and made Antico our first stop. He used to live in New York, so we knew we were in good hands. But we still live in New York. That means we're still skeptics. One bite won our hearts. Here's a look at some of what goes on at Antico Pizza Napoletana.

Walk in and head up to the counter.

No table service. The menu hangs behind a cashier. Place your order there and it gets sent to the pizzaiolos right away.

Walk over to the dining room, which doubles as storage, prep, and kitchen. Walk-ins line the walls and all the dry goods are kept along the walls. Dough proofs along one wall. It's a fantastic, charming idea and economic use of space.

Antico is BYOB, so tables are stocked with plastic cups.

We ordered three pizzas and each came to our table within eight minutes. The triple-oven setup allows Antico to handle the ravenous crowds that show up in a steady flow for lunch and dinner.

Every seat is front row.

Don't skip out on the condiment bar. No salt, pepper, oregano, and/or cheese shakers sitting on top of garbage cans for guests here. Help yourself to pickled chilies, Parmesean, garlic, an incredible chili paste, pepper, salt, and chili flakes.

Diavola ($22) - Sopressata, peppers, and bufala mozzarella. The dough is incredibly soft and chewy. Definitely could have stayed in the oven for another 45 seconds or so for that blissful, crunchy char. But the ingredients, all made in-house, taste of pure freshness, bright flavors, and spot-on seasoning. Not too much spice in the sopressata, but there's a nice kick in the pickled peppers. Everything is lulled by the gooey, sweet cheese.

San Gennaro ($22) - Sausage, red bell peppers, bufala mozzarella, and onion. Crumbles of sausage render their fat to the whole pizza and come out of the oven tender and sizzling. None of the pizzas we ate needed salt, but they did get a dose of that killer chili paste.

Pomodorini ($21) - Vesuvian tomato, bufala mozzarella, garlic, and basil. Antico's version of the classic Margharita is perfect, sans those charred edges we love. On all three of the pizzas, the bufala mozzarella melts ever so slightly but retains some of its original shape, and taking in the sweet, milky ball of soft cheese with the chewy dough really is a magical thing.

Antico is a unique dining experience. It's fun and casual. Without table service, it allows guests to focus all their attention on one another. No one disrupts the conversation and all decisions (ie what to order) are made before you sit down. Eating at Antico is easy, delicious, and something we hope to do again very soon.

Antico Pizza Napoletana | 1093 Hemphill Ave NW | 404-724-2333 | www | map