QuickTake:
His newest ventures in Eugene are Pizzeria DOP and Osteria DOP, one a simple food truck that belies its authentic wood-fired Neapolitan pizza, and the other a sit-down family-style experience with pizza, pasta, cocktails and a lot more.
Inside Osteria DOP, a gleaming white-tiled pizza oven imported from Naples, Italy, and built by a fourth-generation oven maker, runs at about 900 degrees, cooking 12-inch pizzas in 60 to 90 seconds.
A commitment to authenticity defines chef and owner Rocky Maselli’s two Eugene operations: Osteria DOP, a full-service restaurant at 1122 Oak St., and Pizzeria DOP, a mobile food truck.
Since launching the food truck in July 2020, Maselli has brought his Neapolitan pizza credentials and the food of his southern Italian heritage to Eugene through traditional pizzas, handmade pastas and regional specialties.
The names reflect a lot about Maselli’s philosophy. DOP stands for Denominazione di Origine Protetta, which is the Italian term for the European Union’s Protected Designation of Origin. It is an assurance of quality, that products come from specific locations and are made by specific artisans.
Deb Maher and Mary Ann Reilly dine at Osteria DOP in Eugene, Oct. 9, 2025. Credit: Isaac Wasserman / Lookout Eugene-Springfield / Catchlight / RFA
“We took our name from that because, to me, it’s inspirational,” Maselli said. “That DOP stamp speaks to what I’ve done with my career, and how important tradition is and sharing those traditional skills so that they’re not lost.”
At Osteria DOP, staff greet diners and explain to them the QR-code ordering system and recommend that orders be placed in sequence, with drinks and appetizers first, then entrees, then dessert. Food arrives as it’s ready, meant to be shared family-style. And with pizzas cooking in just a minute or so, it doesn’t take long.
The menu reflects Maselli’s dedication to southern Italian cuisine. Appetizers include fava bean puree with braised chicory, a traditional Italian green vegetable ($11). Pizzas range from classic Margherita ($20) with tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil, to pizzas that represent regional cuisines such as the Puglian ($17), with fennel sausage, sweet onion, and mozzarella and pecorino cheeses.
Osteria DOP’s menu includes a lot of pastas (gnocchi, cavatelli, squid ink tagliatelle, ravioli). In colder months, baked pastas join the menu. Desserts include traditional cannoli (crispy pastry tubes filled with sweet ricotta, $9 for two) and zeppole (Italian fried dough dusted with powdered sugar and served with lemon curd, $12 for four).
The menu is a natural fit for Maselli. His father’s side of the family is from the southern Italian region of Puglia, near the city of Bari.
Osteria DOP menu items (clockwise from top left): salad DOP, strega sula spiaggia cocktail, Margherita pizza, and zeppole with lemon curd. Credit: Isaac Wasserman / Lookout Eugene-Springfield / Catchlight / RFA
Cooking since age 10
Maselli’s culinary journey began early. At age 10, he started cooking alongside his mother, Dolly Pierce, at the family’s marina restaurant on a small island in British Columbia’s Gulf Islands after the family moved from California’s Central Valley.
“The joke when I was a kid was I was the official taster,” Maselli said. “So I had opinions already at a very young age about how things should taste and look.”
Pierce grew up on a Sonoma County grape farm that produced zinfandel, raised by her uncle, who was from the northern Italian region Liguria.
“I have very distinct memories going out to the ranch in Sonoma … and my aunt rolling raviolis out on the table,” Maselli said. “I didn’t know it at the time, but that Italian cooking sensibility — I just knew that I liked it.”
Owner Rocky Maselli at Osteria DOP in Eugene, Oct. 9, 2025. Credit: Isaac Wasserman / Lookout Eugene-Springfield / Catchlight / RFA
Though Maselli initially planned to study art after high school, his early restaurant experience led him in a different direction. In 1991, he graduated from culinary school in San Francisco and began working for French hotel group Sofitel. He then moved to the Italian restaurant Il Fornaio, where he opened a location in Burlingame, California, in 1993.
There he met his future wife, Leah Pearl, the assistant manager of the restaurant’s coffee shop. When their twin daughters were born in 1998, the couple moved to Eugene and Maselli became chef at Marché, the restaurant that Pearl’s mother, Stephanie Pearl-Kimmel, was preparing to open.
A mise en place tray at Osteria DOP. Credit: Isaac Wasserman / Lookout Eugene-Springfield / Catchlight / RFA
The Slow Food awakening
Maselli spent 12 years at the French-inspired Marché, quietly incorporating Italian influences into the menu — not inconceivable as the two countries share a 320-mile border.
But the turning point came in 2004 when he joined Slow Food, an international organization celebrating traditional cooking techniques and ingredients. As one of 100 delegates from across the country, he traveled to Turin, Italy, for the Terra Madre gathering.
“That was my ‘a-ha’ moment,” Maselli said. “I was eating and drinking local, regional food. It all coalesced into me knowing that that’s what I wanted to be doing with my time.”
After leaving Marché and opening Osteria Sfizio in Eugene, opportunity again knocked from California. The owners of A16, a San Francisco restaurant focused on southern Italian cuisine, invited him to become executive chef of their new Oakland location.
Cookbooks above the bar are an inspiration for the menu at Osteria DOP. Chef Rocky Maselli was executive chef of A16’s Oakland location. Credit: Isaac Wasserman / Lookout Eugene-Springfield / Catchlight / RFA
The job came with an incredible perk: two weeks of training in Italy, including a week at the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, known as AVPN, the organization that safeguards the techniques and standards of true Neapolitan pizza.
Maselli’s pizza dough has only four ingredients: water, flour, salt and yeast. He doesn’t mind sharing the recipe because it takes more than knowledge of the ingredients to make the dough work.
Maselli’s talent earned him oversight of A16 locations in San Francisco and Oakland, plus consulting work for their restaurants in Tokyo and Yokohama. Osteria DOP’s Montanera pizza, with a base of lightly fried dough topped with tomato, smoked mozzarella, basil, sea salt and olive oil, is something Maselli borrowed from Naples.
“You can get that pizza in Yokohama, you can get it in Eugene, and you can get it in Oakland,” he said. “There are very few restaurants in the U.S. that do fried pizza base.”
Haley McDaniel plates a dish at Osteria DOP in Eugene, Oct. 9, 2025. The kitchen is just across the bar so diners can watch cooks at work. Credit: Isaac Wasserman / Lookout Eugene-Springfield / Catchlight / RFA
Coming home
In 2017, the family returned to Eugene, and Maselli rejoined Marché while planning his next venture. When COVID-19 hit in 2020, it accelerated his timeline. By July 2020, Pizzeria DOP’s food truck was serving authentic Neapolitan pizza from a wood-burning oven — no small feat in a mobile kitchen.
“It’s a heavy trailer,” Maselli said. “It gets hot in the summer. There are much easier ways to make pizza on a food truck.”
But ease isn’t the point. Maselli has now trained several people who have worked with him, and they all hit the standards for quality he expects.
Margherita pizza at Osteria DOP. Credit: Isaac Wasserman / Lookout Eugene-Springfield / Catchlight / RFA
“We all make really good pizza,” he said. “So the goal is, it doesn’t matter who’s making it, it’s going to be super-consistent. And I think we’re doing a really good job. I think on a good day, we’re as good a pizza restaurant as anything on the West Coast.”
Osteria DOP
1122 Oak St.
541-913-6460
Pizzeria DOP
541-913-7575
Ricotta-filled ravioli with a light tomato sauce. Credit: Vanessa Salvia / Lookout Eugene-Springfield
Bucatini cacio y pepe (cheese and pepper). Credit: Vanessa Salvia / Lookout Eugene-Springfield
Fava bean puree with sauteed chicory and toasted bread. Credit: Vanessa Salvia / Lookout Eugene-Springfield
Burrata cheese with dragoncello-pistachio topping (dragoncello is the Italian word for tarragon) and toasted bread. Credit: Vanessa Salvia / Lookout Eugene-Springfield
Cannoli are classic Sicilian pastries consisting of a fried pastry shell filled with a sweet ricotta. Credit: Vanessa Salvia / Lookout Eugene-Springfield
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