The Obsession

Joseph Barber, aka Joey Della Barba, was practicing law in Washington when pizza got him.  Not eating it - everyone eats it - but understanding it.  He started going to pizza conventions (yes, they have these, and yes, they are wonderful), where in 2018 everyone was talking about a style most of the country hadn't met yet: Detroit, with it's caramelize cheese crust walls and racing stripes of sauce.

One style led to another.  The more Joey learned, the clearer the problem became: every great American pizza city guards it's own style, and almost nobody makes more than one of them well - because each one is genuinely its own craft.  Different dough.  Different fermentation.  Different pan, temperature, timing, everything.

So he went to school for it.  Literally: the International School of Pizza in San Francisco, run by world champion pizzaiolo Tony Gemignani, where the curriculum is exactly what it sounds like.

Ghost Kitchen Carryout to Cult Following

Della Barba started small - a carryout only operation inside Union Kitchen in Ivy.  No dining room, no signage, no internet and literally no public access, just pie orders you called in.  It should have been a quiet start.

It wasn't. The pies started making lists.  Work spread through the neighborhood, then through the city's food press.  We ran pizza tasting menus - seven miniature pies across every style, built for two people to discuss & debate - and people drove across town for them.

"When former defense attorney Joey Barber began slinging carryout-only pies...he soared to the top tier of DC's pizza makers."

- Washingtonian

A Shop of Our Own

In October 2023, after years-long search, Della Barba opened it's doors: a re-imagined old pizzeria space on East Capitol Street, near Lincoln Park.  A real oven.  A real counter.  Eventually a patio.  The same rule as always: everything from scratch.  Every dough.  The sauces.  The sausage, the meatball - from crouton to cookie.  Even the ice cream is churned here.

And the same founding idea, finally under one roof: four American regional pizza styles, each one handcrafted and given the respect its home city would demand.

Why the Names?

Look closely at the menu and you will see a system hiding in plain sight.  Every specialty pie is named with a nod to the world it came from:

New York Pies = New York Places

    Flatbush, Dumbo, Meatpacker.  Neighborhoods you'd fold a slice in.

Nonna Pies = Grandmothers

    Gertie, Gigi, Margo.  Celebrating the women who created the style at home.

Detroit Pies = 1970 Muscle Car Era

     Chevelle, Firebird, Shelby.  Big thick crunchy cheesy crusts & racing stripes of sauce.

Chicago Deep Dish = Jazz & Blues Greats

      Buddy, Holdiay, Simone.  Chicago is amazing.  Pizza and music run deep in that town

What We Believe

That a pizza styles is a piece of a city's history, it's culture, and making it poorly is a kind of disrespect.  That "handcrafted" or  "from scratch" isn't a slogan, it's a schedule - slow rise ought don't care if you are in a hurry.  That deep dish travel uncut. And that nobody should pick a favorite until they have had all four.