Via Napoli Pizzeria was founded by Luigi Esposito, a third-generation pizzaiolo from Naples, when he opened his first restaurant in Lane Cove in 2011. A second location followed in Surry Hills, and in the years since, Via Napoli Pizzeria, Sydney’s authentic Neapolitan restaurant at 628 Crown Street, Surry Hills and 141 Longueville Road, Lane Cove, has become one of the most respected Italian restaurants in the country. In 2026, both locations were named in the Gambero Rosso Top Italian Restaurants guide. But the story behind the food begins long before Sydney.
Growing Up in Naples
Luigi Esposito grew up in Naples — the city where pizza was invented and where it is still understood more deeply than anywhere else. His grandmother sold pizza fritta on the streets, the deep-fried Neapolitan pizza that has fed Neapolitans since at least the 1940s, and Luigi worked alongside her from a young age, learning the feel of good dough before he learned the theory behind it.
The Esposito family had been working in the food trade across three generations, each one passing the same knowledge forward: how dough behaves at different hydrations, how a wood fire moves, what good fermentation smells like. By his teens, Luigi was training in professional kitchens across Naples, refining the techniques that define the Neapolitan pizza tradition — long-fermented dough, high-temperature baking, the discipline of keeping the ingredient list short and the quality absolute. He learned, too, that Neapolitan pizza is not a recipe but a practice: a method refined over centuries to produce a specific, irreproducible result.
Opening Via Napoli in Sydney
When Luigi moved to Sydney, he arrived with a clear idea of what he wanted to build. Lane Cove in 2011 was not an obvious location for a serious Neapolitan restaurant, but Luigi chose the neighbourhood deliberately. It was a place where people ate together as families, where the dining culture was local and unhurried, and where he believed the food could speak for itself.
From the first service, Via Napoli was different. Luigi sourced Solania San Marzano DOP tomatoes from Campania, made dough from type 00 flour and fresh yeast that fermented for 48 hours before shaping, and cooked everything in wood-fired ovens burning at 450–480°C. At that temperature, each pizza cooks in 60 to 90 seconds, producing a crust that is soft and airy at the centre with a lightly charred edge — the cornicione — that defines Neapolitan pizza and cannot be replicated in any other oven. These were not differentiators. They were the minimum requirements of the tradition, applied without compromise.
What grew around the food was a neighbourhood restaurant in the proper sense: a place where families came back week after week, where the staff knew the regulars, and where the experience of eating felt like the experience Luigi had grown up with in Naples. That atmosphere — warm, unhurried, genuinely Italian — has defined both Via Napoli locations ever since.
The Standard the Food Requires
Neapolitan pizza is one of the most tightly specified food traditions in the world. The Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (AVPN) defines exactly what it requires: type 00 flour, fresh yeast, long fermentation, San Marzano or certified Campanian tomatoes, wood-fired cooking at the correct temperature. In 2017, UNESCO added the art of the Neapolitan pizzaiuolo to its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage — recognising that the tradition is not just a recipe but a practice worth preserving.
Luigi Esposito trained within that tradition and runs Via Napoli to its standards. He has read the full account of what makes Neapolitan pizza different — the flour, the fermentation, the oven, the tomatoes — and nothing in it surprises him. It describes exactly how his kitchens work. For Italian expats living in Sydney, Via Napoli is consistently the restaurant they describe as the closest thing to eating at home. That is the standard Luigi holds his kitchens to.
The full range of pizzas and Italian dishes is available on the dine-in menu.
Expanding the Vision
Luigi’s understanding of Italian pizza culture extends across regional styles. In Surry Hills he has also launched 170 Grammi, showcasing Roman pizza al taglio, and Pizza Fritta 180, which celebrates the fried pizza his grandmother made on the streets of Naples. Each concept reflects the same conviction: that Italian pizza is regional, specific, and worth knowing in its full diversity, not flattened into a single style applied everywhere.
Recognition
In 2026, both Via Napoli Pizzeria locations — Surry Hills and Lane Cove — were named in the Gambero Rosso Top Italian Restaurants 2026 guide. Gambero Rosso is Italy’s most respected food publication; its international restaurant guide is the reference point for Italian dining outside Italy. Via Napoli Surry Hills has also won the Outstanding Restaurant award at the Local Business Awards and been a finalist in the Australian Small Business Champion Awards.
The recognition is consistent with what regular diners — and Italian expats in particular — have said about Via Napoli for years. The food is made the right way. That is not a claim that needs defending. It is what happens when a third-generation pizzaiolo from Naples runs a kitchen the way he learned to.
Still at the Pass
Luigi Esposito remains closely involved in both Via Napoli locations — shaping menus, training kitchen staff, and holding the standard he brought from Naples in 2011. The hospitality is the same as the pizza: nothing added, nothing taken away. The table is set, the oven is burning at temperature, and the dough has been fermenting since yesterday.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Luigi Esposito?
Luigi Esposito is a Naples-born, third-generation pizzaiolo and the founder of Via Napoli Pizzeria. He opened the first Via Napoli in Lane Cove, Sydney in 2011 and later a second location in Surry Hills. Both restaurants are named in the Gambero Rosso Top Italian Restaurants 2026 guide — the most respected international reference for Italian dining outside Italy.
Where did Luigi Esposito learn to make pizza?
Luigi Esposito learned the foundations of pizza-making in Naples, Italy, starting as a child working alongside his grandmother who sold pizza fritta on the streets. He later trained in professional kitchens across Naples, refining the Neapolitan techniques that define Via Napoli’s kitchen today: 48-hour dough fermentation, wood-fired baking at 450–480°C, and sourcing San Marzano DOP tomatoes from Campanian producers.
What does third-generation pizzaiolo mean?
A third-generation pizzaiolo is a pizza-maker whose craft has been passed down through three generations of the same family. Luigi Esposito’s grandfather, father, and Luigi himself all worked within the Neapolitan pizza tradition. That lineage means his knowledge of the craft was not learned from a course or a book — it is a living inheritance from a family embedded in Naples’ food culture across more than sixty years.
When did Luigi Esposito open Via Napoli?
Luigi Esposito opened the first Via Napoli Pizzeria in Lane Cove, Sydney in 2011. A second location in Surry Hills followed in subsequent years. In 2026, both restaurants were named in the Gambero Rosso Top Italian Restaurants 2026 guide, one of the most respected international references for Italian food culture outside Italy.
What style of pizza does Luigi Esposito specialise in?
Luigi Esposito specialises in Neapolitan pizza: dough made from type 00 flour and fresh yeast, fermented for 48 hours, then cooked in a wood-fired oven at 450–480°C for 60 to 90 seconds. The result is a soft, airy base with a lightly charred edge — the cornicione — that is the defining characteristic of authentic Neapolitan pizza and cannot be replicated in a conventional oven.
Has Via Napoli Pizzeria won any awards?
Yes. Via Napoli Pizzeria was named in the Gambero Rosso Top Italian Restaurants 2026 guide at both its Surry Hills and Lane Cove locations. Via Napoli Surry Hills has also won the Outstanding Restaurant award at the Local Business Awards and been a finalist in the Australian Small Business Champion Awards.
Is Luigi Esposito still involved in Via Napoli?
Yes. Luigi Esposito remains actively involved in both Via Napoli Pizzeria locations, shaping the menu, training kitchen staff, and maintaining the standards he established in 2011. The restaurants continue to be run with the same close attention to technique and ingredient quality that has defined Via Napoli from its first service.
