Chef Gino Sorbillo Delivers Award-Winning Pizza to South Beach

One of Italy’s best-loved pizza chefs, Gino Sorbillo, has opened a Miami Beach location of his eponymous restaurant, at 100 Collins Ave.

Sorbillo's award-winning Neapolitan-style pies are legendary in Naples, Italy. The pizzaiolo — or pizzamaker — is respected throughout Italy for his food. His four restaurants — including the family's first Naples location, which opened in 1935 — have hourlong lines and are regarded among the best in the country.

Today Sorbillo is known for churning out a slightly larger version of Neapolitan pies. Described as incredibly light, they're cooked in wood ovens and use limited ingredients, including 00-graded flour and San Marzano tomatoes. Typically served unsliced, the pies arrive with a sauce-heavy center and a chewy, fire-charred crust.

In 2013, Gambero Rosso, Italy's popular food guide, named Sorbillo Napoli best pizza restaurant. The site, however, wasn't as enamored with Sorbillo's New York City location: "Without great peaks the offer of traditional recipes... lack a certain genuine and authentic aspect on the table."
Like its sister establishments in Italy, New York City, and Tokyo, the Miami Beach restaurant offers Sorbillo's wide array of classic and seasonal Neapolitan pies, along with his famous pizza fritta (fried pizza dough), calzones, an assortment of antipasti small plates, main dishes, pasta, and dessert.

More than a dozen pies, priced from $9 to $28, can be found on the South Beach menu. They include Sorbillo's own margherita, classic marinara, and specialty pies such as carbonara con tartufo, which combines guanciale, egg yolk, buffalo mozzarella, black truffle, basil, and olive oil with cracked black pepper. There's even a vegan pie made with dairy-free cheese, mixed vegetables, and olive oil ($20).

However, there's one caveat: Only 250 pizzas are available each day, served on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Sorbillo. 100 Collins Ave., Miami Beach; 305-281-0588; sorbillonyc.com. Sunday through Thursday noon to midnight, Friday and Saturday noon to 1 a.m.