Will H.
Yelp
I really REALLY wish we had shown up about 20 minutes later because I think my review may have been 4-5 stars, but unfortunately, we didn't get their best pizzas. Granted, we probably wouldn't have landed a seat without reservations had we been any later. The spot is seemingly popular based on the space being completely filled shortly after we arrived, and lines forming outside, despite the tables turning very quickly.
The staff were all very friendly, and I liked the diversity of the options on the menu, with variety of traditional and unique pizzas flavors and a decent amount of pastas. It was interesting to see standard and larger Neapolitan-style pies. I'm not used to seeing the large option, so it's definitely a plus if you're coming with a larger group.
Now, why only 3 stars? As a pizza person who's traveled to places like Naples just to chase the some of best pizzas in the world, I can't help but judge these types of pizza spots more than I'd like. One of the biggest issues you can sometimes run into is when you don't have THE pizzaiolo at the oven, you don't always get their best representation of their product. Since we were just passing through, we really only had once shot to try Spacca's pizza and unfortunately, the pizza was disappointing. To rub salt into the wound, their main pizzaiolo came back and suddenly the pies coming out looked like they were coming from a completely different restaurant than ours. I saw the oven temp get bumped up, which helped increase the rapid rise of cornicione, kept it more open and soft and avoid the crispy, dense, and drier bake of the crust we ate. You could see him checking the doneness on the bottom, and rotating expertly for an even bake. Since we were sitting at the bar, we were able to watch all of the pies coming out and it ended up being a little sad to realize we missed out on "what could've been." Not gonna lie, I was legit sad to have missed out on what I saw. Sure, we could've been a pain and requested pies baked like *that one over there*, but having already downed most of our pies, I just powered through, underwhelmed and sad. I couldn't possibly have eaten any more pizza at that point anyway. The dense, dry crust was just too filling. Still, I did make room for tiramisu, which was excellent.
Overall, I'm torn. I witnessed top quality pies coming out of that oven. I know they're serving excellent pizza. I just also know in my only chance to experience Spacca, I didn't personally get to enjoy that quality. Had I not been sitting at the bar to witness the better bakes coming out, I would've just assumed the pies we had were their approach of baking their pizzas. Based on how busy the location was, I know they're doing good stuff, though. We just missed out. So, I'd like to say it's a safe gamble to check out Spacca, but just be aware that you may experience a tale of two pies. If you're local, that's a fair gamble. If you're traveling through? I'll leave that up to you, and I hope you get their best version instead of what I experienced. I'll never know, unfortunately :(