Popular Italian restaurant family brings Romana pizzas to Liverpool for the first time

The man behind some of the city’s favourite Italian restaurants has brought a new food first to Liverpool.

Vincenzo Margiotta, who owns Cucina di Vincenzo and ViVi in Childwall, has launched Croccante Pizza Romana with good friends Vito Rosa and Cristiano Mente.

The pizzeria opened just over a week ago in Penny Lane.

And Vincenzo says:

“As far as I am aware this is the only Roman pizza here in Liverpool.”

It’s early days, he admits, but the take-away restaurant is already proving to be a huge success: “It’s become a little bit of a hub for people to meet and have a drink and a pizza, and it’s amazing how they are chatting together while they wait for their food to be called.

“And that’s really nice.”

And he adds:

“We’ve had many guests even in the last few days who’ve come back in the same day to order again – and not because there wasn’t enough to eat.

“They say the pizzas are, in their words, so tasty and so light, they could eat two. And so they do!”

Vincenzo, who runs his Woolton Road venues with daughters Nina and MasterChef finalist Gabriella, is well-known in the city and respected for his high quality food and popular eateries.

And friends Vito and Cristiano are similarly experienced.

Vito has had a successful restaurant in Italy for 35 years, and Cristiano has operated and worked in the pizza industry in the US for many years but lived in the UK now for some time.

“Between the three of us, we chatted about doing a pizza concept but not a standard pizza like the pizza Napoletana, which is very prevalent now in the UK. It’s a fantastic product – some done incredibly well and others not so well – but it’s been done to death.

“We three have always had a love for pizza Romana which is a very thin, crispy pizza; very healthy, very digestible, and really tasty.

“The pizza Napoletana has more dough and that’s the reason why it rises more, and is cooked in a higher temperature oven, hence, you get that large border around it, and crust.

“With pizza Romana, we stretch and roll the pizza with a rolling pin which gives it that really thin crust. The dough is made differently as well with different flours in order to achieve the crisp base and flavour of the pizza. We use flour that has minimal refinement, therefore is rich in minerals and fibre.”

The Roman pizza is also baked in a tunnel oven which cooks from above and below and takes four minutes to cook, unlike the Napoletana pizza which is cooked in just over a minute.

Croccante Pizza Romana offers just take away and delivery – more of which later – although Vincenzo says: “We have added about 12 or 15 very casual dining chairs and stools inside for people to sit at while they wait for their collection and they can have a beer, we’re fully licensed, or sit down and eat their pizza which they’ve just purchased.

“There are no reservations, it’s not a dine in, but we have had customers come in, order a pizza, and ask if they can sit and eat and have made a meal of it.

“We’ve got families coming in with their kids and, like I said, it’s become a bit of a hub.

“My mantra has always been to be, where possible, outside the city centre; I’d just rather be in the community and part of a neighbourhood environment.”

Croccante Pizza Romana will also sell fried snacks, salads and desserts, as well as soft drinks, Italian wines and Italian beers.

And the quality will be what people have come to expect from Vincenzo and his family.

“I hope, and I think, that our guests have a confidence that something under the Vincenzo’s stable will deliver.

“It puts a pressure on us and that’s why we haven’t opened another Vincenzo’s or Vivi’s anywhere and nor will we, because you can’t replicate them unless you transfer the amazing staff to another site.

“But Croccante is somewhere you could roll out elsewhere providing the standards, processes and quality are maintained and guaranteed.

“It’s only been open a week and I have been there for only two and it’s been busy. The venue, the product, and the vibe is enough to bring people in and so I think it has the potential to roll out long term. It’s not something I’m planning now, but you never know.”

Croccante Pizza Romana will deliver as well as offer takeaway eventually.

But Vincenzo says:

“We are using a third-party platform for our delivery but we haven’t switched it on since the first day when it nearly sunk us because we were so busy.

“We’re learning to walk before we run and make sure we’re properly geared up before we offer it. But we’re busy – and that’s good.”