Profile: Stag Pizza
Stag Pizza is taking sourdough seriously– learn more about the process behind the drool-worthy pizza pop-up, and keep an eye out for your next chance to try a pie.
All photos by Chris Ciesel
Resident food & wine lover Adam Pfeifer sat down with Stag Pizza founder Josh Albarelli to get the low-down on how their delicious pizza is made.
Tell me about how Stag got started.
Two years ago I decided on a whim to learn how to make pizza. After getting the basics down fairly well, I read about the sourdough method in pizza making. I heard it was challenging and a bit of a mystery, so I was immediately attracted to it. I made my own sourdough starter from scratch, got hooked and haven't stopped making pizza since.
What's the story behind the name?
Part of my family hails from a small town outside Napoli called Cervinara. The town has this amazing coat of arms featuring a big, regal stag. We threw a bunch of names around initially, but once we discovered the crest it was an obvious choice. Both a homage to our family and the birthplace of our pizza inspiration. But my 4 year-old son came up with "Pizza Dumpster", a close second.
Can you tell me about what, in your opinion, makes Neapolitan pizza so special?
When I think of Neapolitan pizza, I think of the modern version we're used to seeing. The pizza folks in Napoli recently created rules and regulations around pizza making to create a standard product. I've been to Napoli and had pizza. It's fantastic. A lot of folks around here are doing incredible work in the modern Neapolitan style. But what is really special is taking inspiration from a tradition and putting your own stamp on it. I'm taking the traditional pizza-making methods of my Italian family and combining that with modern sourdough baking. I use the super-hot oven and pizza making blueprint like you'd see in the Neapolitan tradition, but I differ in that I use a sourdough starter, or "naturally leavened" process. You get that beautiful bake that's exclusive to the Neapolitan style but combined with an airy, delicate crust that's full of flavor and digests easily. All that said, Neapolitan pizza is still a comfort food for the masses.
I've seen you partner a lot with the Campground for the NeoPetillant series, is there something about the pairing of Neapolitan pizza and natural wines that work well together?
I mean, it's pizza and wine! But there is something special about Pétillant Naturel (Pét-Nat) wines and our pizza. It's really a celebration in fermentation and the idea of letting go. Pét-Nat wines are insane. They're bottled in this old school fashion - before the fermentation process finishes. The result is a sparkly, dryish wine that retains great fruit notes and aromatics. It's affordable and not pretentious. My favorite part is this wine process is sort of a gamble– you're never quite sure how the wine will turn out since it finishes in the bottle. That's where it collides perfectly with our pizza method. Our naturally fermented pizza is a product of the variables at play– location, time, temperature, water. It's always within a range of excellent, but the final product is a mystery until it finishes in the oven. Sometimes the crust is a bit puffier, or browns a bit different, or stretches easier. And that's the letting go part. You can control the pizza to a certain degree, but in the end, a bit is left to nature. In an age where everything is so controlled, how great is that?
Aside from the typical Margherita; can you tell me about your flavor choices? Do you have any favorites for toppings or an approach to choosing toppings?
We're minimal, but not traditional. I grew up eating different styles of pizza, so that's the inspiration for our regular menu. One of my favorite memories as a child was eating a New York slice with my mom at this place called Original Pizza. Cheese every time. My mom would cut it up into little bites. So I created a three cheese using a New York style mozzarella, but then I add some fresh mozzarella and a hard sheep's milk cheese. It's bonkers. We do a pepperoni in a more New York style, too. But using the super hot Neapolitan oven you get just a hint of char on the meat. Next level!
Our rotating pizza special is where I get creative. I love taking my favorite types of food and making that work on a pizza. Mexican food is incredible, so I toyed around with chorizo and peppers for a while. Loved that one. Adobo is one of my favorite sauces, so I did one with pulled pork and cojita cheese and it turned out great. I basically take a food I love and ask "why does this work?". Right now, I want to do a Cubano pizza. It's a perfect sandwich. So I'll take those elements and do several iterations on the sourdough until I get it dialed in.
What's the long term goal for stag?
Serving the ideal pizza to someone will always be the goal. I know it's sappy, but I'm the obsessive romantic type. When you eat Stag Pizza right now, you're walking into a 2-year experiment in fermentation. You're experiencing what I've learned about repeating the pizza process hundreds of times and learning something from each trial. Oh, a few degrees warmer water did this. Mixing in this way worked well. What if I let the fermentation go an hour longer? I'm never satisfied. It's exhausting, but I'm so grateful to find a medium to express this part of myself. All that said, I'm so proud of our pizza and how much we've grown. I'm just now feeling like I'm scratching the surface on the naturally leavened process. I imagine I'll say the same thing in 5 years. So the long term goal is to keep learning and growing in this beautiful baking process. To this end, I can see a space in our future. A big oven in the back making pizza in front of people. I've been collecting ideas for a space of some kind for the last decade or so.
Follow @stagpizza on Instagram to stay on top of their updates & pop-up schedule.
