BOB Alchimia a Spicchi

Dough, Calabria, and the same station

Stone-ground flour and lievito madre set the tempo before service; Roberto Davanzo, chef at BOB Alchimia a Spicchi in Montepaone Lido, works from that base. Since 2016, he has served as co-founder and chef here, turning an accidental beginning into a disciplined practice around dough, local raw materials, and Calabrian products brought forward rather than hidden. His training at Scuola Italiana Pizzaioli gives the work a formal spine, but the restaurant’s line of thought is regional and hand-led: flour, fermentation, fire, and the ingredients of Calabria, treated as the material of the craft rather than a decorative accent.

Davanzo has described the path as one opened by chance. The bench tells a steadier story. Amatricalabra makes a Calabrian reading of amatriciana, naming the bridge it crosses. Ricordo Mammola builds its memory from pink garlic from Nicastro, ’nduja from Spilinga and grated Mammola ricotta cheese, so the places are carried in the composition. That is the house’s clearest gesture: pizza remains pizza, eaten by hand and shared at the table, while the discipline around the impasto, the toppings, and the pass makes room for a more exact Calabria.

Six spicchi and a regional vocabulary

The format gives the kitchen room to work. New Side of Bob uses a light, thin, crumbly dough cut into 6 spicchi, another expression of the restaurant’s impasto rather than a separate idea. The menu moves through experimental pizza tastings, Calabrian ingredient work, and seasonal combinations, with the slice acting as the measure. Supermarinizia, Dark side of Bob, Black pepperoni, Amatricalabra, Ricordo Mammola, Cardinale’s Sweet Hazelnut Focaccia with Hazelnut Custard, and Metamorfosi all sit inside that grammar of dough and local intensity.

The beverage program follows the same regional pull. Calabrian wines and craft beers are selected for the pizzas, not displayed as an independent cellar performance. A spicy, fatty note from ’nduja needs one kind of lift; a sweet focaccia with hazelnut custard asks for another kind of patience. The house’s awards also attach to specific work rather than vague reputation: Gambero Rosso named the best sweet pizza of the year here in 2019, and in 2021 the restaurant received Tre Spicchi recognition.

The room keeps the craft informal

The room makes a useful contradiction possible. BOB Alchimia a Spicchi is upscale casual in service, modern in its appetite for experiment, and still governed by the old pleasure of eating pizza with the hands. The atmosphere is welcoming and professional, with a conversational noise level and a sense that the counter and the pass belong to the same act. Guests do not need ceremony to understand the work; the slice arrives already carrying the decision.

That matters for Davanzo’s kind of cooking. The restaurant can push stone-ground flour, natural yeast, sweet pizza, regional street-food thinking, and ingredient crossovers without losing the communal shape of the meal. On the bench, the room gathers around a spicchio of Ricordo Mammola.