One of many Greatest Pizzas in NJ Is in Little Falls

It’s a chilly January night within the useless of yet one more New Jersey winter. The skies are pale grey with the state’s largest storm of the yr looming on the horizon. My tooth chatter and I duck right into a hole-in-the-wall pizzeria on the nook of Principal Avenue in Little Falls.

Inside, my environment brighten. Store proprietor and pizzaiolo, Jerry Arcieri, is throwing picket logs right into a brick oven. I can really feel the heat even from throughout the room. A wholesome mixture of jazz performs all through the restaurant throughout dinner service, highlighting New Jersey’s personal premiere station, WBGO. Behind the counter, he prepares this week’s pizza particular and not using a take care of the storm or rush hour site visitors just some toes exterior his door. The second seems like a miracle. Actually, it’s—as a result of what Arcieri is ready to present for you in his quaint, 20-seat area exceeds the standard of what most wood-fired pizzerias supply these days. Aquila Pizza Al Forno turns geniusness into impeccable pizza.

Pizza is without doubt one of the single most considerable meals you’ll discover within the state. But it surely wasn’t till the final decade that New Jersey pizza has stepped out of the shadow of NYC, receiving the popularity it rightfully deserves. So, it’s more and more troublesome to enact your self as a premier pizzeria when so many different nice spots exist simply minutes away. When you requested 100 totally different folks from NJ about their favourite pizza, you possibly can get 100 totally different solutions. It takes care, talent, and experience—three traits Aquila is bursting on the seams with. 

Aquila, although, is about greater than distinctive fare. Arcieri’s area is heat and alluring. Pictures Arcieri took when he was a New York Metropolis avenue photographer within the Nineties and early 2000s embellish the partitions. The cabinets are laden with empty wine bottles and beer cans gifted to him by his company.

Like jazz, with its complicated harmonies, and improvisation, Arcieri finds a approach to convey that intricacy to the desk via his pizza. In a method, the dough acts as his baseline for which he improvises—and the company are his listeners. Artwork, when boiled down, at all times shares similarities to cooking. 

Certain, Aquila goes method past pizza, however the pies, as at all times, are what maintain folks coming again. For Arcieri, pizza is way more than a meal to have on Fridays—for him, it’s an obsession. 

It began again in 2011 when he constructed a pizza oven in his yard with a imaginative and prescient of a brand new profession looming on the horizon. With the dream of opening his personal spot consistently behind his thoughts, Arcieri figured a way of R&D based mostly out of his own residence was the absolute best possibility. 

Hours of analysis from tomato sauce to home made mozzarella recipes ensued, however nothing perplexed Arcieri greater than the contents of what would finally make up his signature pizza dough. 

Anybody who has ever tried to make pizza is aware of that the dough is the only most necessary side of an awesome product. It’s to my understanding {that a} sub-par tomato sauce and cheese atop an ideal dough could be extra fascinating than one of the best tomatoes and hand-made cheese that cash might purchase positioned on high of a tragic, depressing shell. It took a while, however in 2015, Arcieri developed a small dream right into a actuality when he opened his very personal pizza store. Seven years later, the pizzas at Aquila Pizza Al Forno rival that of a number of the finest pizza retailers in New York Metropolis, and your complete tri-state space. 

After all, Aquila isn’t simply throwing any topping onto their almost excellent dough. Every topping—whether or not it’s the handmade mozzarella cheese, the duck sausage from Goffle Farms, squash blossoms within the summertime from Bracco Farms, or the native Jersey tomato sauce by Sclafani—is believed out to a passionate extent. So, it might astonish the traditional diner to find that they solely supply 5 never-changing pizzas on their menu. 

“5 pizzas which are actually nice are higher than 20 which are simply okay,” Arcieri advised me. I couldn’t agree extra. Aquila additionally provides a singular sixth pizza every week, combining substances which are in season or contemporary available. Take the Meyer lemon pizza with ricotta cheese, kalamata olives, and candy capicola—part of the rotating specials at Aquila which have turn into a fan favourite. 

Along with the pizza, Aquila affords a small unfold of appetizers, in addition to calzones. Noteworthy are the Polpette; tender meatballs simmered in wealthy, tangy tomato sauce all day lengthy earlier than being blasted within the pizza oven and at last topped off with contemporary ricotta cheese earlier than arriving on the desk. 

Taking pizza critically shouldn’t be a brand new factor. Actually, in Italy, they’ve a system for deeming pizza as Neapolitan or, properly, simply pizza. Conventional Specialities Assured (TSG) is a high quality scheme that assures sure merchandise arrive at the usual they’re anticipated to. For Neapolitan pizza makers world wide, this implies utilizing a strict record of substances and having precise pizza consultants come and eat to guarantee the standard is met. Many pizza makers in the US work tirelessly to realize this plaque. When requested about it, Arcieri’s response was, “I don’t care about that… in any respect.” Being confined to sure substances and practices would solely hinder Arcieri’s experience. 

“If I wished it [the TSG plaque], I wouldn’t be capable to do quite a lot of what I do. I must import mozzarella cheese somewhat than make it contemporary every day. I’d be restricted within the toppings I might use—the standard of my product would take a success,” Arcieri continued. 

He’s completely proper in pondering this. The second Arcieri adjustments his pizza to be extra “genuine,” the extra it begins to resemble a thousand different pizzerias and fewer like his personal. Personally, I do know I don’t must see a plaque on the wall to conclude that Aquila affords what I take into account to be among the finest pizzas in New Jersey. 

Seven years later, this formulation has confirmed to work. Aquila has a strong record of regulars who return weekly to get pleasure from Arcieri’s pizzas, in addition to newcomers who’ve heard via the grapevine that one thing particular was behind the doorway of this beguiling Little Falls spot. Takeout solely on Wednesdays, and dine-in on Thursday via Saturday has cemented itself because the Aquila Method. Easy, and to the purpose, is simply how Arcieri rolls. 

Aquila rides the road between a spot for newcomers who wish to get their toes moist and one the place pizza “snobs” can come to get pleasure from a superbly crafted product. The primary time I ate right here, the dough alone was a useless giveaway that colossal quantities of care had been being put into this restaurant each single day.

As a lifelong Jersey man, I can let you know we’ll all argue about meals till the tip of time. However one factor is for sure, when speaking about one of the best pizza in NJ, Aquila Pizza Al Forno deserves to be within the dialog.