Margherita D.O.C.
$21San Marzano DOP · fior di latte Agerola · basilico · sea salt · EVOO. The test of any Napoletana pizzaiolo. If this one isn't right, we've shut the oven off for the night.
AVPN-certified · wood-fired Napoletana · Brooklyn, NY · since 2014Seventy-eight
Seventy-eight
seconds.
One perfect pie.
Trattoria Lupini is a small family-run pizzeria in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, serving Vera Pizza Napoletana to AVPN standards: San Marzano DOP tomatoes from Agro Sarnese-Nocerino, Fior di Latte from a small caseificio in Agerola, sea salt, extra-virgin from a single Pugliese estate, and a 72-hour cold-fermented dough that sees the floor of our Stefano Ferrara Napoli wood-fired oven at 485°C for exactly 78 seconds. Nothing else. Pizzaiolo Giancarlo Lupini — born in Portici, trained in the Forno of Enzo Coccia from 1998-2005 — has been behind the peel here since we opened in spring 2014.
AVPN #824certified since 2016
485°CStefano Ferrara forno
72 hrscold fermentation · Caputo 00
4.8 ★Google · 2,184 reviews
The Forno
A 1,400-kg Stefano Ferrara,
hand-built in Naples.
The heart of any Napoletana pizzeria is the oven — and the heart of ours arrived from Naples on a container ship in December 2013. It's a wood-fired Stefano Ferrara, traditional beehive dome, fire-clay hearth, 1,400 kilograms. Stefano and his son Roberto have been building ovens for the world's best Napoletana pizzerias for 160 years — Via Soccavo, Naples — and ours is oven #1842.
We burn New York white oak and cherry, sourced from Hudson Valley Wood Co. The hearth runs at 485°C (905°F) at the center, 430°C where the pizza sits. Each pie bakes 78-90 seconds, rotated by peel three times. Giancarlo can read the dome temperature by the color of the fire — we keep a Fluke infrared thermometer anyway, because we're stubborn about quality but not nostalgic about measurement.
- ✓ Forno: Stefano Ferrara Napoli · hand-built · oven #1842 · 2013
- ✓ Fuel: white oak & cherry · Hudson Valley Wood Co (no fillers)
- ✓ Hearth: 485°C center · 430°C baking surface
- ✓ Bake time: 78-90 seconds · peel-rotated three times
- ✓ Flour: Caputo 00 Pizzeria (blue) · 72-hr cold fermentation at 4°C
- ✓ AVPN-certified #824 · inspected biennially from Naples
La Famiglia
Four people.
Every service.
Forever.
Giancarlo Lupini
Head pizzaiolo · founder · from PorticiBorn in Portici (Napoli), 1978. Apprenticed 1998-2005 in Naples in the forno of Enzo Coccia at La Notizia; worked in three other Neapolitan pizzerias before moving to Brooklyn in 2009. Opened Lupini with his wife in 2014. AVPN-certified pizzaiolo. Never misses a service.
Alessandra Ruggiero-Lupini
Co-founder · runs the dining roomBorn in Salerno, raised in New Jersey. Restaurant-industry veteran — 11 years front-of-house at Marea, Lincoln Ristorante, and Babbo before opening Lupini with Giancarlo. Runs reservations, wine list, and service with the warmth of her mother's Sunday lunch.
Rocco Esposito-Lombardi
Second pizzaiolo · since 2017Born in Caserta, came to Brooklyn in 2016 to apprentice under Giancarlo. AVPN-certified 2021. Runs the peel on Giancarlo's two nights off; runs weekday lunches solo. Dough-shaping is the best I've seen from anyone under 35 in New York.
Filomena Caracciolo-DeLuca
Pasta & prep chef · since 2019Makes the meatballs, the sausage, the tiramisù, the dough every morning at 6am, and the espresso at closing. Trained at Accademia Nazionale della Pizza in Caserta. Holds the restaurant together. Nobody leaves hungry on her watch.
What people say
Two thousand, one hundred
eighty-four five-star reviews.
★★★★★
"I grew up on Via Tribunali in Naples and I didn't expect to find this in New York. The cornicione is right — airy, charred, chewy at the bite. The San Marzano tastes like San Marzano. Giancarlo is doing the real thing, not a Brooklyn approximation. I drive 40 minutes from Long Island every other Friday."
★★★★★
"We've taken our kids here since they were toddlers. They've grown up being fed Margheritas by Giancarlo with a quiet smile. When our eldest's bat mitzvah was last October, the Lupinis closed the restaurant on a Tuesday and did the whole dinner for fifty people at a family rate. Family is who does that."
★★★★★
"The Lupini Special with the guanciale, figs, taleggio, and the honey drizzled after the bake is the best single bite of food I've eaten in five years in this city. The secondary structure of a pizza you'll remember on your deathbed. Honestly."
We open
at five o'clock.
We're a 42-seat dining room on a quiet block in Carroll Gardens. We don't take reservations for parties under six (walk-in only, ~30-45 min wait for a 7pm Friday). Pickup orders welcomed; delivery within 1.5 mi via our own driver Tuesday-Saturday. We close for two weeks every year in August — Giancarlo and Alessandra take the kids to Napoli to see their grandparents.
- ✓ Tue-Thu 5pm-10pm · Fri-Sat 5pm-11pm · Sun 4pm-9pm · closed Mon
- ✓ Walk-in only for parties < 6 · call for larger
- ✓ Pickup in 25-35 min · Slice delivery within 1.5 mi (own driver)
- ✓ Closed 3-17 August annually (Ferragosto) · announced on IG
Order pickup online →Call (718) 422-8421Reservations (6+) · Resy
387 Smith Street, between Carroll & 1st Place, Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn NY 11231 · F/G at Carroll St · parking on 2nd Place · wheelchair accessible ground floor.