Grazing: First Look: Varasano’s Pizzeria

Enrico Liberato is the new chef, the pizzaiolo, at Fritti. Like everyone else obsessed with pizza in our city, he had to visit Varasano’s Pizzeria (2171 Peachtree Road, 404-352-8216) in the new sky-scraping Mezzo building in Buckhead.

Varasano’s, in case you’ve been living contentedly under your homemade Chef Boyardee pizzas, has received more media buzz than any restaurant in memory. Jeffrey Varasano, the restaurant’s owner, became something of an Internet celebrity after he moved to Atlanta and began blogging his efforts to re-create the pizzas he ate regularly in New York City.

Food bloggers have been singing his praises for at least a year. And the New York Times and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution both ran major feature stories about him on July 2, 2008, after the writers attended one of the private parties he frequently hosted at his home.

These parties were rather like public scientific experiments in which Varasano attempted to make perfect pizzas with his electric oven. They also, of course, were brilliant marketing for the restaurant, creating such anticipation that Varasano’s Pizzeria was effectively given rave reviews before it even opened.

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(Photo by James Camp)