Good news for pizza fans in the Castro environs: North Beach's Il Casaro Pizzeria &
Mozzarella Bar is expanding with a second location, into the former Chilango space on Church Street, three doors down from Chow. Tablehopper brings the news that the three-year-old operation is finally going to breathe some new life into the long-vacant space, and they are aiming for a December opening.

Shortly after their 2014 opening, SF Weekly's Pete Kane declared that Il Casaro was "superb in nearly every way," in particularly calling out the "extraordinary" pizza dough which they also used in making sandwiches called panuozzi.

Tablehopper reports that at the new location, "The pizza oven will ... be a bit bigger, but they’ll still be using the same imported Caputo 00 flour and D.O.P. San Marzano tomatoes on their pizzas like they do on Columbus."

Also, there was an unused patio in back that they are planning to renovate, and they're hoping to get a full liquor license here as well.

Elsewhere in the neighborhood, the only decent sit-down pizza game belongs to Starbelly, with pizza not exactly being the (endangered) Sausage Factory's strong suit — and the rest of the available choices being the counter-service spots of variable quality frequented by happy hour and late-night drinkers (Marcello's being the best). So, good, wood-fired pizza could end up being a runaway success in this spot, if they pull this off.

P.S. 'Casaro' means 'cheesemaker' in Italian.