Fifteen facts that may surprise you about Don Antonio by Starita

Buckhead pizza place soft-opened earlier this month
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Pizza Bianca with Arugula

The newest pizza shop in Buckhead, Don Antonio by Starita is full of surprises. In bringing the New York outpost to 102 West Paces Ferry Road, (the space formerly home to STG Trattoria), executive chef Roberto Caporuscio created a welcoming yet affordable spot with an upscale feel. Though the focus is definitely pizza, Don Antonio by Starita offers appetizers, salads, and desserts, as well as a full bar complete with Italian cocktails.

“In Italy, pizza is a social food,” Caporuscio says. “In America, it’s all ‘let’s have a drink.’ In Italy, it’s ‘let’s have a pizza together.’”

“This pizza is made the same way it was three hundred years ago,” he continues, “When I deliver pizza to a table, I deliver history.”

Here are fifteen fun facts about Don Antonio by Starita.

  1. The menu features more than fifty pies, including numerous gluten-free options.

  2. The flour, tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, prosciutto, cheese, and extra virgin olive oil are sourced from Italy. The curd comes from Green Bay, Wisconsin, and some of the vegetables are local.

  3. The three-cheese burrata is made in-house in a special glassed-in cheese room, visible from the dining room.

  4. The signature dish is the Montanara Starita, a pizza that is first fried and later topped with tomato and smoked mozzarella before making a trip to the oven for extra crunch.

  5. All pizzas are cooked for 90 seconds or less in 850-degree ovens from Naples, Italy.

  6. There are no additives the flour; the wheat comes from seven different countries.

  7. Diners use special Neapolitan knives and forks designed specifically for eating pizza.

  8. The tiramisu recipe comes from Caporuscio’s sister, a pastry chef in Italy.

  9. Starting next month, the restaurant will offer delivery service through Zifty.

  10. Caporuscio spends five days a week in Atlanta and two in New York. His daughter Georgia is the sous chef in Atlanta.

  11. The restaurant walls display photographs of Caporuscio’s hands making pizza dough.

  12. Caporuscio often passes out wads of dough for children to play with while they wait for their food. They can opt to sit at the granite pizza bar and watch the pies being made or even make their own.

  13. Former STG Trattoria owner Brian Lewis has a small stake in the restaurant.

  14. Don Antonio by Starita operates a professional pizza school in New York and hopes to open one in Atlanta as well.

  15. Caporuscio is affectionately referred to as the “Pizza Nazi” because he does not allow substitutions.

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