caserta's pizzeria

boldly proclaiming “if you’re not eating caserta’s you’re not eating pizza” across federal hill, caserta pizzeria opened its doors in 1953, nearly seventy years in the business generating a loyal fanbase that continues to sustain take-out and delivery-only options amidst a global pandemic.

the “originator of the wimpy skippy,” currently open from 9:30am until seven or eight o’clock tuesday through sunday, it is behind a plexiglas partition that guests currently receive items from caserta’s iconic dining room, owner john campagnone jr. promising uncompromised quality and safety while prices remain a relative bargain.

offering “new york-style” and “sicilian” pizzas, though best one can tell this is a matter of small rounds versus large squares, it was beneath pepperoni that average cheese and aromatic sauce mingled atop medium-thick crust, a lack of leavening plainly evident withgoodcrunch but a bit too much chew.

no doubt a concise menu, two salads and what can best be described as a pair of calzones joining the pizza, $5.25 yields caserta’s signature filled with spinach, mozzarella, black olives and pepperoni, though personally the “pepper pig” with local italian sausage, sauce and peppers was both more complex and delicious.

local place, not fancy but reasonably clean and polite service. similar place in my hometown so i get the “i grew up on it” ratings. it’sgoodnot amazing or 4.5 but it’s worth a visit. enjoy.

scary encounter with the owner. my family and i had a very frightening experience at caserta pizza tonight.. when my wife and i were attending uri, friday nights were date nights and date nights often meant pizza at the caserta pizza on campus. feeling a bit nostalgic, i suggested to my wife that the we all go to caserta pizza in providence. we drove 40 minutes north from south county. i was genuinely excited to be going back to caserta pizza. we pulled into the parking lot and went to end of the row. there was no way to pull forward and so i turned around to see if it was safe to back out. there was a white lexus right on my bumper. i put my car in reverse, keeping the brakes on, to signal my intention. the drive, a young lady, honked her horn at me and didn't move. i started to move slowly backward. she started back then stopped and honked her horn again. the older gentleman in the passenger's seat got out of the car and walked over to mine. i rolled my window down and he started lecturing me on parking lot etiquette. really? i told him that i was backing out and suggested that he get back in his vehicle. he just stood there. i had my wife and my ten year old daughter in my car. this was a very uncomfortable situation. thankfully, the young girl had backed her car out all of the way so that we could safely egress. after a couple of minutes discussion, we decided to find a parking space along the street and go to the restaurant. we made our way back to restaurant – btw, this was at about 530pm on a friday night and so we didn't feel unsafe per se – watching out for the tough guy. he was no where in sight. we walked into the restaurant and guess who's behind the counter? the same guy who we met in the parking lot. he saw us come in and sneered. i said to my wife, “the tough guy works here.” and we turned around and walked out.

thegoodnews is that we walked down the road to bob and timmy's. i had heard they made agoodpie and so we went there and, once i cooled down, had an enjoyable evening with a delicious pizza and very pleasant service.

post script....so i go online to find out who owns caserta. i wanted to tell them about our unfortunate experience. found a picture and video of the current owner of caserta pizza. turns out that he's my friend from the parking lot. long story short...it was his parking lot and his restaurant; so it's certainly within his right to do as he pleases there .... including harassing a customer. well done!

providence pizza. as a lifelong resident of central/northern nj and a frequenter of many brooklyn and manhattan pizzerias, i definitely have some strong opinions on pizza. that said, i think cacerta's is the best pizza in providence, but it is not nyc style pizza. they serve what i'd call "sicilian" or deep-dish pizzas, rather than the standard nyc thin crust. and even though there are some nyc style pizzerias in providence (like antonios and nice slice), they just aren't up to snuff. for example, nice slice serves pizza that looks like nyc pizza, but it has cheddar cheese on it and the sauce is just bland. cacerta's sauce has that nice authentic marinara taste, and it's made with 100% mozzarella. they don't have that many toppings, but the ones they do have all really fresh andgood(including nice fresh mushrooms). so even though i usually prefer thin crust, i go with cacerta's deep dish over any other providence pizza.

mid week disappointment. in this economy we dont get to go out to eat as often as we would like so when we do we hope for the best ....we went on a tuesday evening wasnt to busy ...pizza seems as though the dough was old and stale it almost made it difficult to eat.
im almost tempted to go back on a friday or saturday and see if theres a more fresh pizza served during peak production the sace and cheese wasgoodthough

tasty but pricey.... i've been going here for years and the pizza still tastes asgoodbut you half of what you used to. now it's hard to justify the price.