Piccini Wood Fired Brick Oven Pizza

Established in 1995 but under new ownership since 2018, Piccini’s serves wood-fired, circular, traditional large pies, not the cookie-cutter personal size Neapolitan style that most wood oven joints crank out en masse. Much like the vast majority of wood-fired pizza, the dough is soft with no crisp at all but has a nice texture & taste. It’s very thin, not floppy, a little firmer than expected, but lacking any crunch whatsoever. Despite a decent char, the crust is deceptively soft as well. Their cheese blend consists of mozzarella and provolone, which provides a bit of a sharp taste and very stringy consistency, chewy like bubble gum. The sauce is more bitter than sweet, possibly from the Sardinia tomatoes, with just enough spice to provide a solid kick. While I prefer a sweeter sauce, this wasn’t bad at all. The ingredients are quality with a very good sauce to cheese ratio, fantastically flavorful and an excellent level of thinness on the dough. The only glaring issue is the total lack of crispness; it either needs more time in the oven or a higher cooking temperature. This pie was pulled way too early, rendering the dough entirely too soft. A crispier pie could definitely approach the 8s; there’s a lot to work with here. Their gourmet specialty pizzas also look very intriguing, maybe just ask for them well done. Overall this is very good pizza and a solid Italian dinner spot away from the riff raff of the OC boardwalk.