Major pizza news today: Popular Neapolitan pizza truck (with on-board wood oven) Del Popolo is going to get its own permanent home on Nob Hill, at 855 Bush Street between Taylor and Mason. As Inside Scoop is reporting, the three-year-old mobile pizza operation will stay mobile, but acclaimed pizzaiolo Jon Darsky is finally getting his wish to open a brick-and-mortar spot in addition.
Del Popolo will be taking the place of Actors Theatre of San Francisco, which is now relocating, and all we have for a timeline at present is "later this year." Obviously, a full restaurant buildout is going to be required, as well as the shipment of another 5,000-pound Stefano Ferrara pizza oven from Naples, and these things take time.
The full restaurant will enable Darsky to expand his menu offerings to include salads, antipasti, arancini and such so this won't be the pizza-only temple that Una Pizza Napoletana is.
And, it's notable that this is the culmination of a five-plus-year effort by Darsky following his 2009 departure from the kitchen at Flour + Water, where he served as the opening pizza-man. Originally Darsky had hoped to open a casual Italian spot in the Mission, but when that plan failed to take shape, he ended up constructing the $180,000 pizza truck that's been drawing lines for its top-notch pies at Off the Grid, Outside Lands, and various downtown locales since mid-2012.