{"id":56999,"date":"2026-11-13T17:57:11","date_gmt":"2026-11-13T17:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/56999\/"},"modified":"2026-11-13T17:57:11","modified_gmt":"2026-11-13T17:57:11","slug":"a-pizza-czar-finally-opens-his-own-brooklyn-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/56999\/","title":{"rendered":"A Pizza Czar Finally Opens His Own Brooklyn Spot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anthony Falco, the pizzaiolo who helped make Roberta\u2019s a breakout pizza destination, opens Pizzeria the Pantheon Bar on Friday, November 20, at 276 Grand Street, between Roebling and Havemeyer streets, in Williamsburg. Falco started making dough at Roberta\u2019s in Bushwick when it opened in 2008; for at least a decade, he has consulted for pizzerias around the world. Now he and his business partner, Roberta\u2019s front-of-house alum Mateo Vivas, own the restaurant outright.<\/p>\n

The name comes from Alejandro Jodorowsky\u2019s 1973 film The Holy Mountain, in which seekers on the road to enlightenment are distracted by a place called the Pantheon Bar. \u201cPsychedelic influences have been a really big part of my life,\u201d Falco tells Eater. It\u2019s also a nod to the Pantheon in Rome, where Queen Margherita, the namesake of the margherita pizza, is buried, Grub Street reported.<\/p>\n

Pizzas will cost in the $20s range. \u201cWe don\u2019t want people talking about the price,\u201d Falco says. \u201cThere are no $40 pizzas.\u201d The opening lineup includes a sour-cream-and-onion pie with Vermont creme fraiche and onions and chives from the Greenmarket. When Eater visited, Falco was developing a mushroom pizza.<\/p>\n

The dough is made with Cairnspring Mills flour from the Pacific Northwest and leavened with Falco\u2019s 10-year-old sourdough starter, which he has carried around the world and which now lives in a temperature-controlled dough room in the rather large basement prep kitchen.<\/p>\n

Mozzarella is stretched to order, from BelGioioso curd and, occasionally, from Caputo Brothers, at a station with a hot-water dispenser set to 200, 190, and 188 degrees Fahrenheit. It will be served with a fashionably grassy olive oil from the first pressing of the season, which Falco\u2019s cousin is shipping from Italy. \u201cHe was like, \u2018Are you sure you want this? It\u2019s a little strong for most people,\u2019\u201d Falco tells Eater.<\/p>\n

\"Focaccia<\/p>\n

Focaccia at Pizzeria the Pantheon Bar. Melissa McCart<\/p>\n

Focaccia will be sold by the slice or whole, filled with items like mortadella, salami rosa, or cherry tomatoes and olives. A double induction burner will allow the restaurant to serve sides like beans and greens.<\/p>\n

Pizzas bake in a three-deck Moretti electric oven, similar to the kind Falco has installed in pizzerias from Mongolia to India. Falco is also inviting collaborators from abroad to bake with him, starting with a Turkish pizza collaboration with Defne and Emre Kasrat of Gusina in Istanbul. They will be in the kitchen on Wednesday, November 25, to launch the pie, which will stay on the menu for a month. Brent Young of the Meat Hook is smoking a rib-eye rubbed with Turkish thyme and Aleppo pepper. The beef will be shaved thin over mozzarella and onions and finished with pomegranate molasses. \u201cIt\u2019s been their number one seller since I consulted on that space,\u201d Falco says.<\/p>\n

The bar pours Italian-leaning wines, and Vivas plans to serve cocktails like smoked-tomato Negronis and guanciale-washed martinis, alongside sparkling waters such as Spain\u2019s salty Vichy Catalan and Ferrarelle from Campania in 1.5-liter bottles, Grub Street reported.<\/p>\n

The room feels like a Roman pizzeria: terrazzo floors, wainscoting, caned chairs, and a long bar. The space had been a crystal shop with concrete floors and cinder blocks when Falco and Vivas found it. They spotted the for-lease sign while waiting in line for I Cavallini down the block. \u201cI\u2019ve been looking at spaces for 10 years,\u201d Falco, who has lived in Williamsburg for nearly two decades, says.<\/p>\n

The centerpiece is a solid oak bar, at least 60 years old, that their builder found at a tortilla company in Bushwick; it was disassembled and rebuilt here. The first painting on the wall is of a Roman sculpture by an artist in his 90s who lives in a retirement home on Powers Street. There\u2019s also a colored-pencil piece of a pizza slice by Australian artist Bella McCormick and a photo of Vivas\u2019s wife\u2019s grandparents making zeppole at New York\u2019s Feast of San Gennaro.<\/p>\n

The kitchen is built for Falco\u2019s workflow. He mocked up the pizza station in cardboard at home and had it designed in Detroit. A steel fabricator around the corner from his apartment built the rest. The backyard patio with a tree that frames the back of the restaurant is phase two.<\/p>\n

Pizzeria the Pantheon Bar is open Wednesday through Sunday, 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. It\u2019s walk-in only for now.<\/p>\n

\"Anthony<\/p>\n

Melissa McCart<\/p>\n

\"Pizzeria<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anthony Falco, the pizzaiolo who helped make Roberta\u2019s a breakout pizza destination, opens Pizzeria the Pantheon Bar on Friday, November 20, at 276 Grand Street, between Roebling and Havemeyer streets, in Williamsburg. Falco started making dough at Roberta\u2019s in Bushwick when it opened in 2008; for at least a decade, he has consulted for pizzerias<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[265],"tags":[874,483,484],"class_list":["post-56999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pizzerias","tag-nyc-restaurant-openings","tag-pizzeria","tag-pizzerias"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dnc\/117610426169463531","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}