Italophiles and pizza nerds, get ready: Zia Esterina is opening on Thursday at 112 Mulberry Street, the pizza fritta and fried calzone spot from Naples very own Gino Sorbillo. He’s one of Italy’s most public food figures, an Italian TV regular whose reputation was enhanced when he defied the Camorra when it allegedly torched his restaurant. And he was recently was immortalized as a cartoon.
Zia Esterina, named for an aunt, is the first of two places Sorbillo is opening in New York, with his pizzeria at 334 Bowery debuting later this season. Sorbillo uses super high-quality ingredients and turns out an ethereal, seemingly weightless crust. The result is pizza that’s so stunningly good, it continues to draw hours-long lines in Naples.
