With Thanksgiving weekend upon us, and the Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza season pretty much in full swing, you’ll probably soon be so over the foods associated with the holidays (turkey, stuffing, gravy, leftovers, etc.). So what better time to discover a new pizza place?
After making a name for themselves in the city with their excellent Mexican Feliz restaurants (Cantina Feliz, La Calaca Feliz and Taqueria Feliz), Tim Spinner and Brian Sirhal are venturing out into the bustling northern suburbs and exploring Italian fare with Pizzeria Felici, 303 Horsham Road, a modern and casual space specializing in wood-fired Neapolitan-style pizza.
Felici also offers pasta and small plates to round out the menu. The antipasti menu has some brilliant dishes like the fried gnoccheti ($7.95), a fried ball of pasta, sun-dried tomatoes and fontina served up with pesto aoli. Crispy on the outside, the dish has a creamy and flavorful refined mac-and-cheese consistency on the inside. The wood-roasted octopus ($12.95) had the perfect sear, leaving it tender on the inside. The addition of fried gnocchi and blood-orange marmalade gives the dish some bright flavors and textures to compliment the octopus. The Tuscan kale salad ($7.95) was hearty, with the black-pepper yogurt dressing spicing it up and roasted apples balancing it out with a light sweetness.
But it’s the pizza that brings people to the doors of Pizzeria Felici, and with good reasons. Their pizzas strike a balance between traditional flavors and some inventive combinations. For more traditional tastes, Felici offers Margherita ($11.95), pepperoni ($13.95) and meatball ($14.95). But for something a bit more complex, there is the Njuda pizza ($13.95), with red onion and spicy salami, a more aggressive take on a pepperoni pizza. Then there is the excellent San Jose ($14.95) pizza, with fried chicken skin, kale and smoked mozzarella. We don’t know why we didn’t consider putting fried chicken skin on a pizza before, but now we’re thinking how we can include it in future pizza ideas. It also must be noted that customers can add more traditional toppings to Felici pizzas like anchovies, mushrooms, Italian sausage and extra cheese, upon request.
Pizzeria Felici is an excellent addition to the Feliz family of restaurants. We can’t wait to see where they go and what they do next.