Alpharetta pizza spot finds its own magic

Service: informal

Best dishes: Margherita DOC, Verde salad, tomato soup, veal meatballs

Vegetarian selections: salads, pizzas

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Price range: $$-$$$

Credit cards: all major credit cards

Hours: 11:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, 11:30 a.m.-10:30 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays

Children: fine

Parking: shared strip mall lot

Reservations: Mondays-Thursdays only

Wheelchair access: yes

Smoking: no

Noise level: moderate to high

Patio: yes

Takeout: yes

Address, phone: 800 N. Main St., Alpharetta. 770-559-4674.

Website: www.campaniaga.com

MORE OPTIONS FOR THIS TYPE OF CUISINE

Antico

This popular pizza palace near Georgia Tech has nearly reached cult status. Droves of people wait in line out the door to score a table for some of the Neapolitan gold that comes out of the wood-burning ovens. Grab a San Genaro pizza, made with sausage, sweet red peppers, Bufala mozzarella and cipollini onions. If you have a choice (and you probably won't), sit near the "kitchen" area to watch the organized chaos of the pizzaioli assembly line. 11:30 a.m.-close Mondays-Saturdays. 1093 Hemphill Ave., Atlanta. 404-724-2333, www.anticoatl.com. $$.

Double Zero Napoletana

Double Zero, a contemporary southern Italian restaurant, serves Neapolitan pizzas, fresh pastas, seafood and a variety of antipasti. The pizzas are made with a yeast starter brought in from Naples, 00 Italian flour and DOP San Marzano tomatoes. Other menu items include options such as the short rib crespelle pasta and lobster pappardelle. 5-9 p.m. Sundays, 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. and 5-10 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. and 5-11 p.m. Fridays, 5-11 p.m. Saturdays. 5825 Roswell Road N.E., Sandy Springs. 404-991-3666, www.doublezeroatl.com. $$$-$$$$.

Fritti

Fritti's Neapolitan pizzas, made with 00 Caputo flour in a wood-burning oven, are also certified by VPN. Their pies are served Italian-style, which means they come whole, not sliced. They come in a range of interesting flavors like the Ananas e Gorgonzola, with pineapple, aged balsamic, mozzarella and Gorgonzola. 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, 11:30 a.m.-midnight Fridays-Saturdays, 12:30-10 p.m. Sundays. 309 N. Highland Ave. N.E., Atlanta. 404-880-9559, www.urestaurants.com. $$-$$$.

In this town, we go to great lengths to get a great slice of pie — Neapolitan pizza pie, that is. We’ll brave weather extremes to wait in lines that stretch into the parking lot and bump butts with strangers to squeeze onto crowded benches to claim any vacant inch of table space. We’ll tolerate the pizza-containing sheet trays slung at us and eat with only nonabsorbent brown paper rolls to wipe our greasy fingers. That’s just part of the package when we get our pizza at one popular intown spot. But does it have to be so?

Campania, the 1-year-old Neapolitan pizzeria in Alpharetta, revamps the experience of our pizza quest. Here we untangle ourselves from the crowds. You’ll still have to wait, mind you, but not shoulder to shoulder while devising tactics to pounce on seats at the precise moment their occupants gulp final bites.

Instead, you can find a place to breathe at the full bar with a glass from the Italian wine list or flavored house-made ‘cello infused with mango, kiwi or strawberry ($5 shot). Warm yourself in the polished glow of espresso-stained woods and the black subway tile. It won’t be long before you find yourself gazing into the flickering flames of the wood-burning oven and studying the pizzaioli using metal peels to slide pies through heat centers and raise them for their final top char.

Campania’s imported custom-made oven is the restaurant’s main draw and takes center stage. It produces thin, wet pizzas dotted with blistered dough bubbles that will feed your pizza lust, particularly if the haul to Midtown lacks appeal. You may or may not notice that they are missing a moment of magic — a moment that may only come from that shared, arduous endeavor to secure your pie. But that shouldn’t stop you from experiencing one and from exploring the rest of the menu. You’ll soon discover that there’s more here worth trying than just what’s kissed by the oven.

About six staff members are trained to tame the behemoth oven to produce that Neapolitan-style crust we seek. Campania follows the strict guidelines governing this style pizza, including using 00 flour and other imported ingredients. The restaurant is in the midst of the application process to have its product certified and authenticated by the VPN (Verace Pizza Napoletana), which regulates the use of the style name.

Lucky for us that multiple people have the know-how to singe our crusts just so as recent turnover has left the restaurant to “chef by committee.” And perhaps this is why the toppings often need something — more pep, added zing, or je ne sais quoi.

Starting with the Margherita DOC ($14), to see if they can do simple, I found a subtle San Marzano pomodoro sauce, layers of Parmesan and a milky Mozzarella di Bufala. While this was the most balanced of the pies I sampled, it would benefit from a touch more acid in the sauce to play counterpoint to the cheesy notes.

I ate folded slices of the Salsiccia ($15) on two separate occasions, once reveling in the mix of tangy tomato, greasy Italian sausage crumbles, clouds of warmed ricotta and pouches of mozzarella. On the second visit, this same pizza withered under the oil and cheese without salt to serve as that universal unifier.

The tartufo, a mushroom white pizza ($16), weighted with truffle oil, specks of pancetta, ‘shrooms and a creamy crush of fontina and mozzarella, sang the same solo, very one note indeed.

Don’t misunderstand. The pizzas are definitely worth a try, if only for the charming, wood-charred crust alone. You just may have to sniff out the right set of toppings. But don’t do so at the expense of the rest of the menu. There are other great meals to be had here.

For me, the perfect meal is a salumi plate ($12) paired with a simple Verde salad ($7), its magnificent piling of arugula expertly dressed with a pop of lemon and extra-virgin olive oil. Servings are large, so plan to share and chat while you nibble olives and pick over meaty stacks of prosciutto di Parma, spicy Calabrese salami and Parma Cotto. That plus a triangle or two of the rosetta (pizza dough bread, $4) and I’m golden.

If that’s not your shtick, the heavy-cream-enriched San Marzano tomato soup with Parmesan shavings may be ($7 bowl, $4 cup). Or, make a meal of the soft and tender veal meatballs (Vitello alla Fattoria, $9) in a Parmesan-laced pomodoro sauce much like the soup.

At Campania, you’ll find your favorites and enjoy them in a customer-friendly atmosphere. Here, that’s where the magic is.