![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/a575254d9bd49a7e251ac41444005f70a0-AnthonyFalco-BertaVallo.rsquare.w700.jpg\")
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\n Anthony Falco will open his new spot in Williamsburg.
\n Illustration: Berta Vallo\n <\/p>\n
A decade ago, Anthony Falco abandoned his life as the \u201cpizza czar.\u201d It was the made-up title he was given in his role as pizzaiolo and director of pizza operations at Roberta\u2019s<\/a> in Bushwick (and the name of his latter cookbook). Falco was ready to branch out on his own and began to actively scout restaurant spaces. Instead, he became a global pizzeria consultant and advised \u201cdozens and dozens\u201d of establishments in more than 23 countries. He\u2019s helped open places in the Dominican Republic, Kuwait, Taipei, and Mongolia (among many others) and became a partner in one, Br\u00e1z Elettrica<\/a>, in Brazil. This fall, he\u2019s finding his way back home and will open the first pizzeria of his own, Pizzeria the Pantheon Bar<\/a>, in Williamsburg. \u201cTen years on the road got a little old,\u201d he says. \u201cI want to be making pizza with my family.\u201d<\/p>\n Falco was born in Austin, Texas, and moved to New York in 2007. He worked at a dive bar, then began making dough at Roberta\u2019s when it opened in 2008. The pies were not quite Neapolitan in style and known for their then-unusual topping combinations from the jump: The Bee Sting was spicy soppressata and hot honey; the Speckenwolf, a speck and mushroom pizza inspired by Alsatian tarte flamb\u00e9e; and Falco\u2019s namesake, the Millennium Falco, featured crumbles of spicy pork sausage and thin-sliced red onion.<\/p>\n He took that same flair around the world, but, with a wife and two young kids, says, \u201cI want to be making pizza with my family.\u201d The same is true for his business partner, Mateo Vivas<\/a>, an industry vet Falco met ten years ago. It was Vivas who eventually found the site for the new pizzeria while dining at I Cavallini in Williamsburg. Vivas pointed out that the former June\u2019s House of Crystals was sitting vacant and appeared to check many of the boxes the pair were looking for: a clean basement, a reasonable size, and a backyard (this one trestle\u2019d with native grapes; Falco hopes the vines will someday form into some sort of pergola, but they feel pseudo-Italian in the meantime).<\/p>\n The interior space was completely empty before construction got underway. Falco and Vivas brought in a Swedish-style dark timber bar from the 1950s, which they found in a tortilla factory in Bushwick. This is where they\u2019ll serve an Italian-leaning wine selection; Vivas also wants to make smoked-tomato negronis and guanciale-washed martinis, offered alongside a selection of the best sparkling waters including Vichy Catalan\u2019s salty Spanish bubbles and Ferrarelle\u2019s 1.5-liter bottles from Campania.<\/p>\n Terrazzo floors lead to a nook in the back right where they\u2019ll nestle in a three-deck Moretti Forni electric oven. Falco helped install these kinds of ovens in other pizzerias at other project and remains a fan: \u201cIt has really nice soft heat that allows you to do what you want.\u201d<\/p>\n The name is inspired by Rome\u2019s Pantheon \u2014 Queen Margherita of Savoy<\/a>, the one that the Margherita pizza is named after, is buried there, after all \u2014 but it\u2019s a more direct reference to Alejandro Jodorowsky\u2019s 1973 surrealist film, The Holy Mountain, which follows a group of people searching for enlightenment; they are distracted in one scene when they come across the Pantheon Bar, which offers all worldly delights<\/a>. This Pantheon Bar could, given Falco\u2019s travels, feasibly offer all worldly styles of pizza.<\/p>\n While in Istanbul during one of his consulting gigs, Falco made pie with smoked rib eye seasoned with paprika and sumac that he finished with pomegranate molasses. (\u201cIt almost ate like a BBQ pizza \u2014 familiar to them, familiar to me,\u201d Falco recalls.) He\u2019s made Turkish lahmacun, too, thin and crispy, with minced meat and spices. And Vivas\u2019s Argentine heritage might prompt the duo to make the famed fugazza, double-crust cheese-stuffed pizza with a pile of cooked onions on top. (They\u2019re toying with serving fain\u00e1 on the side \u2014 chickpea fritters similar to the Sicilian panelle, which Argentines put on top of their slices \u2014 as well.) But Falco says domestic ingredients \u2014 Caputo Brothers Creamery<\/a> mozzarella from Pennsylvania, Cairnspring Mills flour<\/a> from the Pacific Northwest \u2014 will be the foundation of his pies and maybe more, like focaccia sandwiches with mortadella, or muffulettas.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve done so many styles of pizza,\u201d says Falco, \u201cso I\u2019m giving myself some options here. But at the end of the day, we\u2019re in New York.\u201d<\/p>\n His plan for now is to open only one: \u201cWe\u2019re not looking to optimize and scale \u2014 it\u2019s a neighborhood restaurant.\u201d It is also, he hopes, a spot that moves at a slower pace than many of the nouveau slice joints that draw the majority of the city\u2019s pizza lovers these days. \u201cI find sit-down pizzerias inspiring,\u201d Falco says. \u201cPatsy\u2019s, then Grimaldi\u2019s, then Juliana\u2019s<\/a>, John\u2019s of Bleecker<\/a> \u2014 New York has become known for the slice for sure, but it started with simple sit-down pizzerias.\u201d<\/p>\n Thank you for subscribing and supporting our journalism.
\n If you prefer to read in print, you can also find this article in the October 5, 2026, issue of
\n New York\u00a0Magazine.<\/p>\n