Pizza is Back!

 by Beth Keating

Review

DisneyBizJournal.com

July 1, 2024

 

My family thinks it’s ridiculous that every time I pass the Italy pavilion at EPCOT, I check to see if the pizza window at Pizza al Taglio, next to Via Napoli, is open.

“Why,” you may ask, “with all the upscale and unique foods in EPCOT, are you looking for a paper plate of pizza-window pizza?”

Because the thick squares of pizza there remind me of the Sicilian-style pan pizzas back home in New York, and I haven’t yet found adequate substitute pizza here in Florida to replace my old favorites.  Pizza Ponte in Disney Springs comes the closest, but it’s a little far to go when I just want a slice for lunch!

Pizza al Taglio isn’t open often.  In fact, I’ve never actually seen it open during any of the festivals.  I suppose that with the plethora of food booths ringing the World Showcase, it just doesn’t pay for Disney to open the window while all the other goodies and seasonal specialties are available.

  
But this summer, with a nearly three month downtime between festivals, the pizza window has been open twice while I’ve been at EPCOT!  So regardless of what else we are eating for the trip, I’ve acquired a square for myself, even if the rest of the family is rolling their eyes at me.

For those of you who have been to Via Napoli before, the Pizza al Taglio portions are not the same artisanal pizza slices coming out of Via Napoli’s sculpted giant wood-burning pizza ovens (named after the 3 active volcanoes in Italy—Mount Etna, Mount Vesuvius and Stromboli), despite the proximity to sharing a wall.  Via Napoli has fancy (but very delicious!) pies, with prosciutto, cantaloupe and lots of other toppings available to jazz them up.  Via Napoli imports their flour from Southern Italy, and sources their water for the dough from a spring with similar components to that of Italy's Campania region.  On the other hand, the Pizza al Taglio slices are just your average, utilitarian, feed-the-family quick slices, ridiculously simple, but tasty all the same.

So, here’s the very short food review: Pizza al Taglio serves both pepperoni slices ($9.00) and Margherita slices  ($8.50).  You can also grab some Tiramisu ($8.00), or some wine or beer to accompany your slice.  The square slice itself is pretty large, covering the whole plate, and the dough is not heavily sauced.  The tomato-based sauce is not a particularly sweet sauce, but neither is it overtly acidic.  There’s a perfect amount of melty cheese capped on top, thick and stretchy. The bottom of the slice is lightly crisped, but the inner dough is light, pillowy, and about an inch thick.  Air bubbles along the crust sides remind me of Friday night pizza night back home!  The pepperoni slices also had the really good pepperoni on them - you know the kind – the pepperoni that curls up around the edges and forms a little cup to catch the oils and bring lots of spicy flavor to the pizza.

Alas, I know that the days of grabbing a slice from this window are limited, and that once the festivals return, the Italy pavilion won’t need this grab-and-go anymore – at least until the high-traffic holiday weeks when the crowds swell a little more. When that happens, I’ll go back to checking for an open window.

 

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Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.

 

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