Welcome to PIZZERIA 22!: where we (Owners Brandi & Daniel) are bringing our heart for good food and community to our little corner of West Seattle. Both of us are life long service industry workers. We met behind a bar in Pioneer Square and proceeded to work and manage a number of establishments together in various Seattle neighborhoods for over a decade. Drawing upon 60 plus years of combined experience, when the opportunity arose to literally carry the fire for PIZZERIA 22, we knew it was the right time to step in and run with the simple, delicious concept and ambiance created by former owner Cary Kemp. It has been an honor.
At PIZZERIA 22: we specialize in Wood Fired Neapolitan-Style Pizza, with a focus on fresh, local ingredients as well as imported staples direct from various regions of Italy. Staples like the Margherita D.O.C., and Al Pepperoni are always hot, while the Slow Roast Sunday special has become a customer favorite, showcasing our commitment to simple elegance and culinary creativity.
Our Philosophy: Its simple, EAT GOOD FOOD. In the face of challenges providing quality, sustainably sourced, and healthy options, PIZZERIA 22 is committed to feeding people with simple, natural, and artisan ingredients.
Our ambiance: reflects our philosophy. Simple and inviting. The main room is big enough for family style dining or a party of 50 or so, while the bar side is a bit more cozy and intimate for a smaller party or a nice dinner date.
We are proud to support: local farmers and vendors providing both homegrown and imported artisan products, ensuring that everything we do reflects our commitment sustainability and community connection.
We invite you: to join us at PIZZERIA 22 to discover flavors that speak to your heart and soul and comune with the locals at college and cali, in our little corner of West Seattle. Salute! Grazie di essere venuti.
Now, if ever there was a foodstuff worthy of poetry, song, and general hullabaloo, it is the Neapolitan pizza. A marvel of human ingenuity, it is soft where it ought to be, crisp where it needs to be, and surrounded by a noble, puffed-up crust as proud as an old rooster on a fencepost. It is not merely a dish but a discipline, a sacred rite observed with the utmost gravity by the good folks at Pizzeria 22, who—being upstanding members of the Verace Pizza Napoletana Association—have pledged themselves to the honorable duty of making pizza the way it was meant to be.
The thing must be done properly, mind you. No shortcuts, no flimflammery. The dough is hand-kneaded like in the days before machinery swindled folks out of honest labor. The ingredients—each one a precious gem—are fetched straight from Naples, and the whole affair is ushered into a roaring, wood-burning Vesuvius brick oven, where it emerges transformed: fragrant, blistered, and kissed by fire, as nature intended.
The origins of this divine creation stretch back to 1730, when the first Marinara pizza (a humble yet distinguished affair of tomato, olive oil, and oregano) came into being. Later, in a stroke of culinary diplomacy, the Margherita pizza—adorned with tomato, olive oil, mozzarella, and basil—was created to honor Queen Margherita di Savoia, thereby proving that even royalty can recognize a good thing when they taste it. This noble food quickly spread, first through the trattorie of Naples (later to be known as pizzerie) and then, like all great ideas, far beyond its homeland, hitching a ride on the backs of immigrants and merchants until it conquered the world.
And so, when you find yourself before a proper Neapolitan pizza, take a moment of reverence before the first bite. For in that simple, unassuming dish, you hold a piece of history, a triumph of tradition, and an edible testament to the good sense of mankind.
A pizza cannot rightfully call itself Neapolitan unless it has endured a swift yet fiery trial—60 to 90 seconds in nothing short of a wood-fire brick oven. Lesser ovens, the sort found in ordinary kitchens and other unremarkable places, simply cannot muster the necessary 450° C (842° F) to work the proper alchemy upon the dough. No, sir, only the infernal heat of a true wood fired oven can summon forth that exquisite combination of crispness and chew, that delicate balance between charred and tender, that divine crust worthy of its Neapolitan heritage.
Now, Pizzeria 22 is no ordinary establishment, and its oven is no mere cooking contraption. It is an honest-to-goodness handmade wood-burning brick oven, constructed with a reverence typically reserved for cathedrals and fine violins. Every last piece of it was imported from Naples, from the bricks—fashioned from the very ashes of old Mt. Vesuviu —to the master craftsman who journeyed across land and sea to assemble it, brick by volcanic brick.
In Italy, a proper brick oven is no less an art form than fashion in Milan or glass in Venice, and the one at Pizzeria 22 is a masterpiece in its own right. The Vesuvius bricks, having once endured the wrath of the gods themselves, now lend their resilience to the task of pizza-making, allowing this noble oven to achieve temperatures that lesser bricks could never dream of handling. Small wonder, then, that this oven has become an icon at Pizzeria 22, standing proud and mighty, a monument to tradition, fire, and the pursuit of the perfect pie.
At Pizzeria 22, each dish is thoughtfully prepared to deliver the rich heritage of Italy to your plate. Our menu highlights the best of Italian tradition, featuring everything from fresh, vibrant salads to wood-fired pizzas with perfectly charred crusts and hearty, flavor-packed calzones.
