Via Roma is a famous street in Napoli, and, since spring of this year, Via Roma Pizzeria is the name of a new restaurant in Camp Springs, Maryland. Its owner, Biagio Cepollaro, and its chef, Tonino Topolino, are Washington, DC-area Italian restaurant veterans, and natives of Naples, Together, they are now bringing a friendly Italian vibe to a neighborhood outside of Washington D.C. that will be home to the massive United States Citizen and Immigration Services headquarters, with 4,000 employees, when it opens in September.
As they await the influx of customers from the government building down the block, Cepollaro and his team are serving locals what for many is their first taste of pinsa, the Roman-style pizza variation that is made by pinching the dough, which is also fermented longer than a typical pizza. Pinsa is thinner and lighter as a result and is starting to catch on around the U.S. (see A Pinsa Trend is Coming to Los Angeles). At Via Roma, pinsa is part of a menu that includes Neapolitan and other regional specialties, as well as Italian-American favorites. The restaurant also serves Lavazza coffee and light breakfast in the morning, making it a welcoming place throughout the day, similar to how Cepollaro remembers his favorite street in Napoli.
In this condensed, edited interview, he shares his mission, thoughts on Italian food in America, and more with La Cucina Italiana.
Can you tell us why you chose to name the restaurant after Via Roma in Naples?
It's the main street that connects two parts of the city, and it’s where the shopping is. The main reason I chose it is that the street is where all the small restaurants were when I was going back and forth to school, early in the morning, or in the afternoon, coming back home. And I was seeing a bustling road full of people in suits going in and out of this mom-and-pop shop where they were getting either a sandwich, or pizza, or a plate of pasta. Tourists and families were there too. Then I thought, you know, this is going to be a good idea. And a good story behind it, reminding me that when I was young, there was this place called Via Roma that was offering all this delicious food for all different kinds of people.
Does Via Roma Pizzeria reflect that?
When I designed the restaurant, I wanted it to be very inclusive, like Via Roma is, where you can walk in wearing a suit, or with flip-flops. Go on a date, or with your family. You can find good comfort Italian food, with a special eye on the south of Italy. And with a new pizza that is still pretty much unknown, both in Italy and here in the United States.
You mean pinsa?
Correct.
Pinsa dough at Via Roma.
So why serve pinsa instead of regular pizza?
In 2007, I came here to open a Neapolitan pizzeria in Rockville, Maryland, and I was the first to open a certified Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana. Soon, pizza Napoletana took off; everybody in the United States is doing it. Then when I moved on and I met this guy, Antonio (Tonino), who is my partner in the restaurant. He pushed me to do a new pizza. We decided to make a pinsa. In 2018 at the Pizza Expo in Vegas, I tried pinsa for the first time and I was absolutely blown away. So during the pandemic, we started developing the recipe and feeding our friends and making mistakes, then doing it again until everybody loved it. And we decided that was the pinsa we would serve. We wanted to be the first certified pinsaoli in the state of Maryland.
How did you end up in Camp Springs?
Our real estate developer was one of my customers at a restaurant I used to manage, Bond 45. He followed me after I left and went to Cafe Milano. He decided to take me to this new development he was building in front of the headquarters of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services and he said that he needed an Italian operator. I wanted to do it and Tonino decided to do the pizza and together we designed a menu that was real Italian from the south, but also catering to Americans. So you can see pasta alla Genovese, which is a pretty typical Neapolitan dish, but you will also see scampi and spaghetti with meatballs. You will see arancini, which is best known in Southern Italy and Sicily, but you’ll also see Caesar salad, which is not typically done. We want everybody to feel familiar and comfortable in ordering food. And not just being, you know, snobs and hyper-regional, to the point where you make people feel uncomfortable, especially people that may not be familiar with real Italian food.
ViaRoma's Biagio Cepollaro (left) and Tonino Topolino, in front of art by Grazia Montalto made for Via Roma Pizzeria.
What can you tell us about the colorful mural in the dining room?
While I was at Cafe Milano, one of my friends, Grazia [Montalto], came to visit me. We're both from Naples [though Grazia was born in Paris] and hadn't seen each other in a while. She said, “If you ever open your own restaurant, let me do your website. This is my business card.” Then I saw her work and I said, “Grazia, forget about a website. I want your work on my walls.” She suggested painting a scene from Naples. And her design. I thought, was unbelievable. And unbelievably beautiful. She put the Vesuvius volcano, the street life of Via Roma, the gulf, the mermaid, and all the iconic things that you know about the city. The original is hanging in the kitchen. And then we blew it up on paper for one of the walls, which is about 30’ by 15’.
As an Italian with a lot of experience in American Italian restaurants, why do you think the cuisine is so popular in the U.S., even more so during the pandemic?
I think exposure between social media and TV, including Anthony Bourdain, or Gordon Ramsay, and the Bastianich family with Eataly in New York. I think that really helped. And the fact that Americans were traveling to Italy more and getting exposed to real Italian food. When they come back to America, all the big chains say they're trying to be Italian but they're not really Italian. Once you try Italian food, you see how simple it is and you can reproduce it at home. At the end of the day, we use olive oil, salt and pepper. That's all we use, and we make everything taste delicious.
The first time I come to Via Roma, what should I order?
Definitely try a pinsa. Because you know it's lighter. It's crispier. It's easy to digest. And a couple of arancini. Then stay for an espresso on the patio. So that's what Via Roma is, inclusive for everybody with amazing food.