Anthony Carron and partners’ 800 Degrees Neapolitan Pizzeria was awarded with the title of “true Neapolitan pizza” by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana for their Westwood To-Go location.
The Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana is a nonprofit organization founded in Naples, Italy, in 1984, with the “mission to promote and protect” the Neapolitan pizza craft “in Italy and worldwide.” The certification requires the pizzerias to adhere a number of quality standards, including using Italian ‘00’ flour, extra virgin olive oil, and fresh mozzarella, along with strict regulations regarding preparation and cooking.
All brand locations are inspected and evaluated by the AVPN on an individual level, with the additional specification that each pizza be prepared independently, as opposed to on an assembly line. While all 800 Degrees Pizzas are prepared with the same ingredients and cooking method, the nature of one-by-one preparation at 800 Degrees Pizza’s Westwood To-Go location made it the perfect candidate for the brand’s inaugural certification. There are currently less than 500 AVPN-certified pizzerias in the world, and fewer than 75 in the United States.
“This is something we’ve been striving for since the beginning,” says Anthony Carron, chef and founder of 800 Degrees Neapolitan Pizzeria. “It’s always been of the utmost importance to me that we represent the tradition of the true Neapolitan pizza, and we are honored to be presented with the certification.”
800 Degrees recently opened locations in Santa Monica, Las Vegas, and at the Tom Bradley Terminal at LAX. Upcoming locations also include Pasadena, Downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, Playa del Rey, and the SLS Hotel in Las Vegas. The 800 Degrees team is also scouting additional locations in New York and Chicago.
800 Degrees Neapolitan Pizzeria serves build-your-own personal pizzas prepared to each guest’s liking and baked in around a minute in an 800-degree wood-burning oven. After opening its Westwood Village location in January 2012, 800 Degrees has been turning out, on average, 800–1,200 pizzas per day, serving 300,000 pizzas in its first year.
