Dante's Pizza in New Canaan: Finally Entering the Inferno

Marg, Funghi (mushrooms + prosciutto cotto), Bee Sting (spicy salami, cherry peppers, hot honey)

On several occasions, chef Tim LaBant has suggested we check out Dante’s Pizza in New Canaan.

“Have you been to Dante’s?”

“Have you been to Dante’s yet?”

“You gotta try Dante’s. I’d be curious to see what you think.”

Before he mentioned it to me a year ago, I hadn’t even heard of Dante’s. I live pretty close to New Canaan, and what’s worse is I frequently visit my favorites there, namely the South Ends, Elm, Locali, and I’ve eaten an obscene amount of Joe’s Pizza.

Well done bottom

Tim wasn’t the only chef who brought up Dante’s. When I interview Karla Sorrentino about her ice cream biz, she also mentioned Dante’s as a wood-fired favorite.

If being 10 minutes away on the backroads, combined with frequent New Canaan visits and two respected chefs telling me to “GO TO DANTE’S!!!” wasn’t enough to make me feel bad about not even knowing it’s right there, Dante’s has been open for five years. What a major failure on my part.

Dante Mirafiore doing his pizza thing

Alas, it was time. In early September, I was at Dante’s—located in Pine Street Concessions, next to Zumbach’s—bright and early at 11 a.m. when they open. But…oh, no! There’s a note on the door saying they’re on summer vacation. I waited this long, and everyone deserves a break, so a little longer wait wouldn’t kill me, even if the cravings for what I was told was excellent pizza would prove torturous.

Two weeks later and Dante’s was back in action!

A “Bee Sting” getting set to come out of the wood burning Mugnaini Oven from Healdsburg, CA. Dante likes to ideally fire pizzas at 750-800 degrees, but on warmer days it’ll run much hotter.

We snuck into the mini “food hall” that also includes not just Dante’s but also Waffle Cabin, Greens on the Go, and Miyuki’s Noodle Shop. We ordered a bunch, including three pies, at the counter at Miyuki’s. You pay, they give you a numbered sign, and they’ll bring it over when it’s ready.

But we couldn’t resist a conversation, not only because of the praise from Tim and Karla, but because Dante’s practically has next to zero online presence. There’s a website, sure, but there’s a practically abandoned Instagram account. Aside from that, not much else except for random public reviews on the interwebs.

Bee Sting slice close up

Back there stretching, saucing, and topping pies was Dante Mirafiore, who was cool with us basically cold calling him. And he told us that pizza was something he grew up making at his father’s restaurant.

“My dad had a pizzeria, so I used to work there,” Mirafiore says. “It was called Roberto’s. It was at the old People’s Bank in Bridgeport. When I was old enough, I went to the CIA for culinary school.”

Funghi pie with plenty of thin-sliced ham

It was at culinary school where he met his wife, Miyuki, of…you guessed it, Miyuki’s Noodle Bar that’s right next to Dante’s Pizza inside of Pine Street Concessions. And both have serious cred before they landed in New Canaan.

“After culinary school, she worked at The Modern and I worked at Le Bernardin,” Mirafiore says. “We both worked together at Chez Panisse in California (Berkeley). That was the last restaurant we worked at before we moved back to Connecticut.”

Mirafiore would then find himself at the acclaimed pizza joint Franny’s in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn before he’d come to open Dante’s. The way he tells it is that Tim LaBant was offered a space in Pine Street Concessions first but had other plans—which is Parlor in Wilton. LaBant would go on to tell Miyuki about the space and the rest is history.

Eat your greens! Dante’s salads for on-premise are served family style. Pictured is the “Beet” with mixed lettuces, beets, olives, feta cheese, cucumber, almonds and pumpkin seeds.

Tender meatballs, like grandma used to make.

Ever since opening in 2017, Dante’s has been serving his style of artisan pizza to a loyal local following.

And the menu? It’s straightforward. Pizza is obviously the centerpiece, plus there are tender, old school meatballs, and four freshly prepared salads. Aside from soft drinks, seltzers, wine, and beer, that’s pretty much the gist of it.

With pizza this good, that’s all the menu needs to be.

Light, but crispy. Charred, not burnt. Bright red sauce. Hell, they even look pretty.

The cooked dough after sitting in a 750-degree or more Mugnaini wood-fired oven comes out like a hybrid of pizza styles. Digestible and easy to eat like Neapolitan. Char, chew, and crunch like New Haven.

“The style is hard to describe,” Mirafiore explains. “The oven we use is more on the Neapolitan side, but I don’t like to say it’s that. I don’t do a dough as soft, and I don’t run my oven as hot. I like the bottom a little crispy and I like the sides and edges darker.”

Whatever the style may be, or may be to you, we actually had trouble choosing a favorite of the three we decided to rock with. A margherita is always a must, especially at a new (or new to you) place, or, if your thing is more of a New York topped pie with shredded mozzarella, that’s not a bad measuring stick either.

Dante’s even has specialty pies like a Classic White (fresh mozzarella, ricotta, garlic, basil), Piccante (red sauce, provolone, sausage, roasted peppers, onion, chili oil), Funghi (fresh mozzarella, ricotta, mushrooms, prosciutto cotto), and the Roberta’s namesake (though, not an exact replica) Bee Sting with red sauce, mozzarella, spicy salami, cherry peppers, and hot honey because as Dante puts it, “People kept asking if I could do a pizza with ‘the honey like Roberta’s does.’ Sure, I’ll pay homage to Roberta’s. When I was in Brooklyn working at Franny’s there were two cool pizza places, Franny’s and Roberta’s.”

Well, Dante’s, we think you’re pretty cool, even if this article is five years late.

75 Pine Street; New Canaan
203.920.1551; dantespizzact.com