What’s the one food everyone likes? It’s pizza, of course! So in honor of one of the world’s favorite foods, check out Antico Pizza – probably the best pizza in Atlanta.
Just west of Midtown, owner Giovanni Di Palma serves up 10 kinds of spectacular pizza as well as three calzoni. Making pizza the authentic Napoletana style is not for novices, and the guys over at Antico clearly know what they’re doing. They take their craft extremely seriously. Using imported Italian ovens and ingredients are just a couple of the measures they take to ensure the best tasting pizza possible. Why did I have DUC pizza yesterday again?
Dining is too often an exclusive act within a single party, but Antico is able to break down those barriers with a few communal tables that need no white tablecloths and quality food that anyone can appreciate. Great food should be shared with great company.
What makes Antico truly special is not the great-tasting pizza itself but the environment in which you eat it. Clearly the chefs put the utmost care and love into each individual pizza, but what sets Antico apart is the way you interact within the space of the restaurant. With a mixed atmosphere of refined and relaxed, Antico caters to all sorts of ages and demographics. You’ll find young couples standing up eating on boxes of San Marzano tomatoes while another group opens a bottle of wine with one of the wine keys scattered on the communal table.
Antico accommodates groups big and small, and you can really manipulate the atmosphere to your liking. Antico lets you go with a group and have a loud conversation as well as interact with strangers sitting next to you. At the same time, it’s totally possible to go with a date and have a more intimate meal, albeit in a more casual setting than a traditional sit-down dinner.
Just as impressive as the dynamic atmosphere is the pizza. I was truly saddened when I finished it. Antico offers 10 different pizzas ranging from $18 to $21. It seems expensive but really is a fair price considering each one serves two or three people. Not to mention the quality of ingredients and speed with which you get it (literally under two minutes).
Each pie is cooked for 60 seconds in the imported ovens and comes to you piping hot. The thin crust is done perfectly with a crunch on the outside and a soft, doughy inside.
Snagging a spot at a table while waiting is not easy, as you only have about a minute, and the place is most likely packed.
If you’re 21, feel free to bring a bottle of wine or two since there is no corkage fee. And don’t bring glasses – they have all the plastic cups you need.
Again, what makes Antico so interesting is that it does not try to be fancy or casual – it just is. The owners had a vision of serving authentic pizza in a jovial atmosphere. They make the pizza and let us take control of how we want to eat.
Strike up a conversation with people sitting next to you or make room on your tomato box for others to eat.
Antico gives you the chance to have a unique dining experience. Only about a 15-minute drive from campus, Antico is open every day, except Sunday, from 11:30 a.m. until “out of dough.”
If you’re heading to Georgia Tech or Midtown (or even if you’re not because you shouldn’t need an excuse to come), try to fit Antico into your schedule for a meal you’ll remember for a while.
–By Ethan Samuels
The Emory Wheel was founded in 1919 and is currently the only independent, student-run newspaper of Emory University. The Wheel publishes weekly on Wednesdays during the academic year, except during University holidays and scheduled publication intermissions.
The Wheel is financially and editorially independent from the University. All of its content is generated by the Wheel’s more than 100 student staff members and contributing writers, and its printing costs are covered by profits from self-generated advertising sales.
Wonderful, well-written article. It makes me hungry!
My dream would not be just one particular place. Just having the money and ability to travel and see it all.