Dining Guide

DeSano Pizza Bakery

Mountains of 00 flour bags and towers of industrial-size cans of San Marzano tomatoes would be kitschy somewhere else but somehow work here. Perhaps because the Austin outpost of this small chain really does feel like a bakery, a bright, humming operation where white-clad pizzaiolos tame 6,000-pound wood-fired ovens. Grab a bottle of wine from the convenience-store-style cooler, join one of the polished-wood communal tables, and feast on the likes of generously sized beef-and-pork meatballs with marinara and delicious herb-sprinkled focaccia; monstrous calzones whose tender, slightly blackened crusts come stuffed with melty scamorza and buffalo mozzarella; and Neapolitan pies like the Verdura, with broccoli rabe, spinach, and cherry tomatoes.