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An office park in Sandton is an unlikely place to go looking for a taste of Naples. But enough people had told me that Café 28 makes some of the best pizza in South Africa that I needed to find out for myself.
There’s a particular danger in arriving somewhere with that kind of recommendation. You’re already expecting a lot from what is, at its most basic, dough, tomato and cheese. Before I’d finished eating, though, I was interrupting my own questions to tell the owners how good it was.
This is proper pizza.
Café 28 sits inside Inanda Greens Office Park, overlooking a nine-hole golf course. The setting makes more sense once you hear co-owner Andrea Giromini explain it: space for families to relax, particularly on weekends, away from the street. You might come for the food, but there’s a reason to settle in.
Andrea’s relationship with South Africa started long before the restaurant. His mother was born here before moving to Italy, and he grew up coming back here with his sister to visit their grandparents. Those visits stayed with him. Born in Piedmont, he trained on the Amalfi Coast, specialising in Neapolitan pizza, and settled in South Africa in 2013. Café 28 first operated on Grayston Drive before moving to Inanda Greens in 2016.
The name, he tells me, comes from his age when he opened the business: 28.
Ask Andrea what separates a trained pizza maker from someone who simply decides to open a pizzeria, and the answer comes quickly.
“You need to know what you’re doing,” he says. “It’s about technique. It’s about product, sourcing right product.”
Then he starts explaining the dough.
According to Andrea, the process begins 72 hours before the pizza reaches your plate. He blends four flours imported from Italy, including type 1 flour to bring more flavour to the dough, and uses an imported dehydrated mother yeast. The dough then undergoes slow fermentation in the fridge.
Three days of preparation for something I was very capable of demolishing in a few minutes.
That attention continues with the toppings. Andrea talks me through imported buffalo mozzarella, fior di latte and San Marzano tomatoes with the enthusiasm of someone introducing you to his favourite people. When I suggest “the champagne of tomatoes”, he happily agrees.
There is a confidence here that I recognise from eating with Italians elsewhere. Ask a question about an ingredient and you get the reason for using it, where it comes from and a fairly strong sense that substituting something else would be missing the point.
Co-owner Alessio Capriello brings another South African Italian story to the table. Born here, he grew up speaking Italian before learning English. His father was born in Caserta, near Naples, and his grandparents were among the Italians who came to South Africa looking for a better life.
Over pizza, we talk about that community and the family connections behind the food. It’s a reminder that you can travel a considerable distance through a meal without leaving Joburg.
The anchovy pizza is sensational. Another arrives with cured beef, tomatoes and a balsamic drizzle. At this point, keeping the interview going requires some discipline.
Then there’s the Giallorossa, with Italian sausage and red and yellow semi-dried tomatoes. That sausage gets me. Salsiccia. I practise saying it, partly because Alessio is there to help and partly because I’d quite like to keep ordering it.
If your test of a pizza is whether a slice stays rigid when you lift it, adjust your expectations. These pizzas have the soft, foldable centre Alessio associates with the Neapolitan style. He rolls his slice. I fold mine. Either way, this is food you want to get your hands around and eat immediately.
Naturally, I ask about pineapple.
There will be no pineapple. No banana or avo either, Alessio tells me. I enjoy winding Italians up about pizza toppings, but by now I understand the seriousness behind the answer. They have put considerable thought into what belongs on these pizzas.
“We have a certain standard, and that’s the standard we keep,” he says.
The menu currently lists a Margherita at R160, the Napoli & Stracciatella at R220 and the Giallorossa at R270. There are also pastas, sharing plates and desserts, although I’d have a hard time coming here and talking myself out of pizza.
Is it the best pizza in South Africa? I’d need to eat a lot more pizza before pretending to settle that argument, and I’m very happy to take on the research.
What I can say is that Café 28 belongs in the conversation. I arrived with a big claim to investigate and left understanding why people make it.
Need to know
- Address: Café 28, Inanda Greens Office Park, Sandton
- Contact: 011 083 7873 or visit their website
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