Nashville Pizzeria Opens With Neapolitan Pies in Downtown Austin

Essential Nashville pizza restaurant DeSano Pizzeria Napoletana is opening its second Austin location in the downtown area at 301 Lavaca Street, taking over the old Ginger Man space. The new restaurant is now open as of Tuesday, December 17.

New to the downtown DeSano will be personal-sized nine-inch Neapolitan pizzas available during late-night hours, as well as the Italian chopped salad.

Otherwise the menu will offer the same items as its sibling restaurant: Neapolitan pizza with traditional and house options, the latter of which include the lasagna with meatballs and a mess of all sorts of cheeses; meatballs as a standalone dish and then as a sandwich; calzones; salads, and sweets like Nutella pizza, cannoli, and biscotti.

Passersby will be able to look into DeSano’s dough room, where, well, the dough is made and shaped into pies. The restaurant is adding two Acunto-Mario wood-fired ovens sourced from Naples, Italy.

The downtown DeSano is open from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and then from 11:30 a.m. to 2:20 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Catered lunches will be available from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. during those days.

Owner Jimmy FitzGerald wanted to expand within the city before setting forth elsewhere in Texas. The first Austin location opened up in October 2016 in the North Shoal Creek neighborhood.

Ginger Man closed its downtown location in May 2018, and it is supposed to relocate over into Plaza Saltillo. There’s another Austin-area beer pub location in Bee Caves.

December 18: This article has been updated to reflect that DeSano is now open in downtown Austin.

• All Coverage of DeSano [EATX]