Bavaro's Pizza Napoletana & Pastaria – Tampa, FL

 

Last night our friend Josh was in town, so Lance and I met him for dinner at Bavaro’s in downtown Tampa.  I helped design Josh’s condo in Longboat Key when I was working for BoConcept, but since then he’s moved to Dallas.

I’d never been to Bavaro’s before that – but it seemed to be a popular restaurant.  It was pretty crowded when we got there since a whole crowd of teenagers were dining there before prom.  The dining room is pretty small, but the atmosphere is nice – they have exposed brick walls and a large wood-fired oven.  The food is authentic Italian – and the ingredients are either imported from Italy or locally grown and organic. 

Lance and I split a salad and a pizza.  The Mediterranean salad had baby spinach, pine nuts, red onion, grape tomatoes, feta, and fig vinaigrette – it was very fresh.  Our pizza was the Carne – with San Marzano tomatoes, fior de latte (mozzarella), soppressata, Italian olives, and extra-virgin olive oil. 

I personally prefer crispier crusts – theirs was a soft-crust style pizza that they recommended you eat with a fork and knife.  But the ingredients again were very flavorful.  Josh had the Diavola pizza – which was similar to ours, but with peppers and homemade spicy sausage.  I think next time we’ll order that one. 

Bavaro’s is located at 514 N Franklin St #101, Tampa, FL 33602.  They are open 11am – 3pm and 5 – 10pm Monday – Friday, and 5pm – 10pm on Saturday & Sunday.