Wood Fired Up | Making pizza connections

I've always enjoyed going to local, family-owned restaurants, but never had the impetus to really find out about the family themselves. Tonight I went out to what had become a new favorite in the neighborhood (actually that same place that I was taken out to that first night that felt like such a failure) with a new attitude and new drive to learn more. Lucali is a romantic wood-oven pizza spot hidden on Henry Street in Carroll Gardens. Serving only pizza and calzones, you squeeze into candle-lit wood tables in the front of the restaurant -- and only the front because the back is the open "kitchen" where owner/chef Mark stretches dough and rolls it out with wine bottles on wide oak tables in front of the wood-fire oven.

According to Alex, our server tonight, Lucali was opened up a year ago last Columbus Day (that makes it a year-and-a-half old) by Mark and his wife and their friends and family. Alex, a neighborhood girl and friend of the couple, is one of about 8 servers who have been there from the start and rotate nights. She and the others hadn't worked together prior to opening the shop, but had faith in Lucali and their friends. Rumor has it the place used to be Mark's grandfather's candy shop, and that the couple just had a baby. It's all hearsay, but I hope to get back in and talk to Mark himself. If anyone from the Lucali family stops by, please say hello!