Vanessa Bolano WGNO News

9:37 p.m. CDT, March 27, 2012
NEW ORLEANS (Uptown)—

If you're a pizza lover there are a lot of new pizza joints in town these days, and one Uptown will give you a one of a kind experience! Vanessa Bolano digs into the dish to give us the low down.

Welcome to Ancora Pizzeria, a slice of Italy on Freret Street Uptown; equipped with a wood burning it shouldn't be a surprise their specialty is pizza, but not just any pizza, Chef and Partner Jeffrey Talbot serves it up Neapolitan style.

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“Pizza was invented in Naples, so anything from that area is Neapolitan,” explains Talbot, “As far as what makes Neapolitan pizza? It really is the dough and the oven. We do an all sourdough pizza, so there's no commercial leaven, no yeast except for the sourdough itself. For us it's sea salt, flour from Italy and water; that's it!”

Chef Talbot says, “There's people that do really great pizza in the city and I think that what we do is different. I don't think that we're necessarily better than everybody else, but what we do is completely different than how other people approach pizza.”

And that's because they're the only people trying to pull off Neapolitan pizza in New Orleans. That means they have a set of rules to follow. Rules like no additives, keeping the pies under 12 inches, and using an oven made of refractory material like brick that cooks the pizza that turns the heat way up.

The oven weighs in at 6,000 pounds, takes two days to cool off, and arrived in New Orleans directly from Italy. It doesn’t use electricity or gas; just wood, and cooks a pizza in 90 seconds. It may take under two minutes to cook, but take your time while devouring each slice. At $12 to $15 a pie, Ancora on Freret Street will take your taste buds to Italy and who knows? It may even inspire your next getaway.

Ancora’s hours of operation are:

Monday- Thursday 5pm- 10pm

Saturday 11:30am- 2pm & 5pm- 10pm

Closed on Sunday

There is no takeout or delivery available. Chef Talbot says there's no way you'll be eating his pizza out of a box; you won't get the full effect!