When Italian immigrants brought their version of pizza to America, they shaped it to fit their hometowns and the tastes of their neighbors. The result was a wide range of regional pizza styles that still exist today, from slices destined for a stroll down Broadway to Neapolitan-style pies dressed up for date night. Go there now

New York–style pizza, favored by street vendors and tavern-goers, is crisp at the edges and herby in the middle with a puffed lip. Historians credit this style, popularized by a speakeasy in Brooklyn called Buddy’s, with spawning the pizza empire that now includes New York-style slices at Pizza Hut, Domino’s and other chains.

The Secret Ingredients Behind La Capa Pizzeria’s Success

In California, chefs like Sally Waters at Bar and Michael Mina at Modern puffed up their dough with an oven built in their backyard by a cantankerous bricklayer. And when Wolfgang Puck opened Spago in the 1980s, he hired a San Francisco chef named Ed LaDou to create puffy-crusted wood-fired pizzas. His creations, such as a smoked salmon pizza with crème fraîche and caviar, were an affront to Neapolitan purists—but the pizzas are so good that customers didn’t care.

These days, La Capa Pizzeria in McMinnville, Oregon, brings the same approach to a wine country town. Former Oven and Shaker alums Kyle Munroe and Jeremy Whyte, backed by a team of area wine and hospitality professionals, serve a menu of Neopolitan pizzas paired with Willamette Valley wines and craft beers in a cozy backyard setting. Locals love the pizza—they say it’s “like your Nonna didn’t make.”

La Capa
713 Midland Hwy, Shepparton East VIC 3631
(03) 5829 1193