St. Vito Focacceria

St. Vito Focacceria: Old-world recipe turned pandemic success story

Photo by Nigel Dennis

Pizzeria serving up Sicilian sfincione with a Southern twist

By Pam Windsor

NASHVILLE – Tucked away on a side street in the Gulch area of downtown, St. Vito Focacceria offers a warm and cozy atmosphere, and food unlike anything you’ll find anywhere else in Nashville. It’s exactly the way Chef Michael Hanna intended it.

Here, the Memphis-born chef with the Italian family (on his mother’s side), serves sfincione, traditional Sicilian-style pizza, and a collection of other Sicilian-inspired dishes that may have a bit of a Southern influence.

The sfincione, however, serves as the main attraction. First-timers who arrive to experience St. Vito’s unique style of pizza aren’t always sure what to expect in the beginning, but end up pleasantly surprised once their entrée arrives.

Hanna’s sfincione is cooked in a rectangle pan with a Focaccia dough that bakes up high and thick with a crusty outside, soft, fluffy inside, chunks of Fontina cheese embedded throughout, and topped with seasoned breadcrumbs and pecorino.

Favorites include the Classic Vito, which is layered with milled tomato and oregano, and the Potato Sfincione with roasted potatoes, a special potato cream, and lemon.

How Hanna ended up introducing Nashville to Sicilian street food is a pandemic success story. The longtime chef was working at another local restaurant and when Covid hit in 2020, he lost his job. During his downtime he began experimenting with the bread he remembered his grandmother making during his childhood.

Photos by Kayla Cook

“I began making this dough in kind of a different fashion in bowls and batards and I was reading this book that had a chapter on sfincione and was remembering eating this tomato-type bread as a child. And I thought, I wonder how it would come out if we baked it on a sheet tray. That’s how it all started.”

He created a name and a logo and started selling pizzas from his house. As interest grew, another restaurant, The Grilled Cheeserie, allowed him kitchen space where he was able to make his sfinciones in greater quantities.

After a couple of years of operating as a pop-up and in other kitchens, Hanna opened his own brick and mortar restaurant earlier this year.

In addition to the type of dough, there are other ways his sfinciones differ from traditional pizza.

“Right before it goes into the oven,” he explained, “we add fontina cheese and it kind of swells up around the cheese cube when it bakes, baking into the dough as one. It’s kind of hidden, so when we go to serve you, you bite into this pizza and there’s a big ole chunk of cheese in the middle of the dough.”

He also parbakes his pizzas. The dough is partially cooked initially, pulled from the oven, then later added back, and baked some more before it’s served.

Photos by Emily Dorio

“I wasn’t a believer in parbaking until we opened this restaurant, but believe it or not, if you parbake the pizzas, let them sit, then pop them back in the oven, they slowly come back to life and you get a crispier product (on the outside), while the inside remains very, very fluffy.”

Hanna sources his ingredients from local and regional farms, so while pizza remains on the menu year-round, some of his other dishes and salad options change depending on what’s in season.

One of his popular side items this summer is a roasted pepper dish using a variety of sweet Italian peppers, and a lengthy preparation process involving roasting, peeling, and marinating the peppers, then adding a variety of different seasonings.

“This was on the menu throughout our pop-ups, and we serve it when peppers are available. It’s a small plate that’s meant to be an accoutrement to your pizza. You can take the peppers and add them on top.”

Although the restaurant is in the Gulch, a popular area for tourists, it sits on a side street offering easy access whether you’re dining in or dropping by to pick up carry-out. Inside, the setting is intimate with just 43 seats, 13 of which are set up like a chef’s counter, allowing diners to look directly into the kitchen and interact with the staff.

Hanna’s goal is to offer one-of-a-kind pizza you can only get here, in Nashville, at this location.

“We’re not a chain, we’re local. We’re a small, independent restaurant and we want to be that special pizza spot in Nashville.”

Dinner is served Wednesday through Sunday from 5 to 10 p.m. with lunch available Friday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. St. Vito Focacceria is located at 605 Mansion Street, Nashville (the former location of Colt’s Chocolates). Find them online at www.stvitonashville.com for more information or to book a reservation.