Pizza from hand-built clay oven, gelato, more Italian delights coming to downtown Tacoma

At APIZZA Little Italy, the kitchen is the restaurant.

The stucco facade of 821 Pacific Ave. in downtown Tacoma already was painted in three brightly colored panels, but now they are distinctly Italian. Through the windows, you’ll soon be greeted by the slices on display and the warmth of pizza hot out of the hand-built clay oven.

A new project from a longtime Seattle restaurateur, APIZZA will serve Neapolitan-style pizzas, square Sicilian pies, salads and desserts from cannoli to gelato. It will be family friendly, with counter service, indoor seating and a sidewalk cafe, plus house wines from Alexandria Nicole Cellars and local beers to start.

“I call it quick-service gourmet,” said owner Marshall Jett, who has called Tacoma home for about five years.

The 1918-era home of his new restaurant, next to a Fresh Rolls outpost on the corner, boasts nearly 20-foot ceilings. It was a blank slate when he signed the lease in the first half of 2021.

The build-out has been expensive and time-consuming, he said, but the “advantage is you can create something unique.”

A long counter of Italian marble lines almost the entire length of the interior. Jett envisions pizza makers tossing and shaping right up front. On the other side of the clay oven — built by hand on-site, situated on a 7-by-7 foot base, weighing approximately 12,000 pounds — a modest grill and stove setup will support prawns served three ways, pans of caramelized onions and eventually fresh pasta. Even the dishwasher, the forever unsung hero of the kitchen, will be part of the show.

“People love to watch things being prepared — they’re curious,” said Jett, who wants the restaurant to offer a blend of performance and education. That sentiment might stem from his background as an interpreter with the U.S. Park Service on the Olympic Peninsula, not to mention decades of restaurant work, from his youth in New York state to Cape Cod and California, where he attended college in the 1980s.

Jett has been a staple of the region’s pizza scene going on two decades. In the early 2000s, he introduced Veraci Pizza with a mobile oven at the Ballard Farmers Market, expanding to other markets and events. By 2008 — when the wood-fired, Neapolitan-style pies so popular today were still a rarity — Veraci had a brick-and-mortar in the same neighborhood and later added a second in Wedgwood.

“I didn’t know what Neapolitan pizza was!” he recalled recently. “I created what I thought was something delicious, not any particular style.”

His first clay oven, on wheels and powered by wood fire, reached 900 degrees Fahrenheit — way hotter than he had imagined. Raised outside New York City, he intended to make a New York-style pie, but tinkering with the dough to withstand higher temperatures eventually led to a thinner-in-the-middle situation. It was basically a Neapolitan, he realized, but he didn’t care for the smaller, 10-inch size typical of the style. So he found a happy medium.

“I think my style developed with the oven,” he said.

Over the years, he has built maybe 50 clay ovens, both for his successful mobile catering business and for private clients at residential homes.

APIZZA, which is a project of his new solo venture called Butter & Olive Oil (he sold his stake in Veraci last year), will be his first foray with a gas-powered clay oven, allowing more temperature control and the ability to cook other dishes.

“This oven can do anything,” he said, though the focaccia-esque Sicilians will be baked in a convection oven.

Despite many months of work in the space, he has kept brown paper in the windows and a relatively low profile. The sign and decals went up just this week — now a neon “gelato” sign glows in the entryway window. He hopes customers learn to swing by simply for a scoop, which he will source from Seattle’s Gelatiamo.

Jett is actively hiring staff and eager to introduce his brand of pizza and all things Italian to Tacoma.

“I think the location is going to be really wonderful,” he said. “It literally cannot be beat.”

APIZZA LITTLE ITALY - TACOMA

▪ 821 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, apizzalittleitaly.com

▪ Details: clay-oven and Sicilian pizza, plus gelato and other Italian fare in downtown Tacoma; target opening Fall 2022

▪ Anticipated Hours: Monday-Thursday 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Friday-Saturday 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m.-8 p.m.

This story was originally published September 15, 2022 at 12:00 AM.