Cool Pizza Oven, Hot Westport Spot

Looking for Westport’s coolest pizza oven?

Start with sushi.

Then take a trip to tapas.

You’ll wind up at Basso. And there — at the far end of the bar, in one of Westport’s most historic restaurant buildings — you’ll see a pizza oven like back in old Napoli.

Basso’s pizza oven, at the back of the bar.

For 50 years after its construction in 1916, the property facing Jesup Green was the back of the Fine Arts movie theater.

In the 1960s it was converted into Fine Arts III. The theaters closed in 1999.

Pizza Inferno moved in, for a couple of uneventful years. It’s barely remembered today. But the owners’ pizza oven is their legacy.

Matsu Sushi took over in 2002. Its dishes were popular — but none were made in a pizza oven. The one that Pizza Inferno had installed — copper-sheathed and handsome, 28 feet high, half-wood and half-gas — was used for storage.

Renato Donzelli moved his Basso restaurant from Norwalk to Westport in late 2020. He doubled his space, and added outside dining. The high ceiling — a remnant of the movie theater days — was perfect for a second-floor space.

The view from the 2nd floor.

Regular customers looked forward to Renato’s contemporary, inventive menu, with many popular tapas and paellas. It leans on Spain and Italy, with hints of Latin fusion.

But for Renato — who was born in Venezuela, but raised in Naples — discovering the long-unused pizza oven was the secret sauce for success.

First however, he had to make it work.

No one in Connecticut knew how to repair the oven’s complicated mechanics. Renato found an older man in New York City (“with a thick Italian accent,” says Ela Benedetto, Basso’s general manager).

Renato then brought in a scaffold. He polished the copper by hand, turning it from black to golden-brown.

COVID still raged. But guests flocked to the new restaurant. Four years later, it remains one of Westport’s most popular spots.

On a good day, Basso sells up to 25 pizzas. Yet many customers have no idea they’re on the menu.

Or — trust me — how spectacularly good they are.

And how quickly they come out of the 1,000-degree oven. It takes less than 5 minutes, from kneading the dough to pulling a piping-hot pie out from its depths.

Pizza-making the Neapolitan way.

Basso’s pizzas are (naturally) Neapolitan. Creating those pies is an art. (Neapolitan pizza-making is included on UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage.)

The Caputo flour — which gives its distinctive doughiness and firm body — comes from Italy.

Basso’s pizza makers aerate the dough by hand, on a traditional wood box. There’s not much sauce. Artisanal toppings — sausage, peppers, meatballs, chorizo — are made fresh daily.

The pizza must be placed just so in the oven, and turned correctly a couple of times. In just 3 minutes, it’s done.

Mangia!

As exciting and flavorful as the rest of the menu is, it’s easy to overlook Basso’s pizzas.

And as stunning as it is, it’s easy to overlook Basso’s back-of-the-bar pizza oven.

Don’t. In one of Westport’s historic buildings, this bit of culinary history sizzles.

(Basso’s pizzas come in large and small sizes, with gluten-free and vegan options. Delivery is available for $3.99. Click here for menus and more information.)

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