Meet Arlene Dechant of Strada Napoli Pizza in Atlanta

Today we’d like to introduce you to Arlene Dechant.

Arlene, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
We both had a love and passion for cooking early on in our lives, we both are culinary graduates and have worked in the food service industry for many years from fine dining to gourmet markets.

We had always talked about having our own business but never wanted a restaurant we wanted something different and 2 years ago it came to us. We have always had a love of our travels to Italy and a passion for Neapolitan pizza. This passion became a dream and this dream became a reality when we designed our mobile Neapolitan pizza cart outfitted with an Italian Marra Forni Oven.

We were trained in Neapolitan Pizza making at Vera Pizza Napoletana in Marina Del Rey, California.

We wanted to bring our oven to our clients for parties, weddings and special events so they could share with their guests’ authentic Neapolitan pizza being prepared in front of them and then baked in our 900 degree Italian oven in about 90 seconds. We also wanted to be able to work with local farmers and to share our artisan art so we became a part of the Community Farmers Markets in downtown Decatur and East Atlanta there was a great need for prepared foods for people to eat while enjoying these markets so we fit right in. We also joined the food trucks on Emory University’s campus for later dining options for students several nights a week.

Has it been a smooth road?
The road did not start off very smooth for us it has become much smoother we still hit some bumps along the way. We did things a little backwards we purchased our first oven before getting our training to realize we purchased a wood fired oven not an authentic Neapolitan wood oven which is different the way it is built to the size of the opening of the oven so we had to sell that oven and we had a custom oven built which was a setback for us.

Being a first time business owner you learn a lot as you go. We had some social media knowledge but realized we had to learn a lot more. Creating a website for the first time, learning to market yourself. Once you get these things in place it gets a lot smoother

We’d love to hear more about your business.
We are a mobile Italian wood fired pizza oven cart making authentic Neapolitan pizza in Atlanta. We do catering, special events, farmers markets, festivals

We adhere to the Neapolitan pizza tradition. Our dough is prepared following the original Neapolitan recipe and we produce all our dough by hand. We use Caputo pizza flour from Naples as well as imported tomatoes and olive oil. We make our own fresh mozzarella and ricotta for our pizzas and we grow our own basil.
Our pizzas are topped with a premier selection of imported Italian products as well as locally produced products and vegetables.

The beauty of our product is it is baked in our Neapolitan wood burning oven that reaches temperatures of 900 degrees plus and cooks in about 90 seconds

We can bring our mobile Neapolitan oven directly to a location for any type of event to enjoy pizza being made in front of them. Our oven has a unique design that draws attention

We are most proud of our company because we adhere to centuries old tradition of the art of Neapolitan pizza making. We are a family ran business

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
We do feel Atlanta is a great place for our business. Being a mobile food cart and working outdoors Atlanta has the perfect climate for us. Unlike other parts of the country we are able to work outside all year and do not get slowed down.

We feel Atlanta’s food seen is continuing to grow and getting better so a good city to start up a business like ours

Contact Info:

• Address: Atlanta , Georgia
• Website: www.stradanapolipizza.com
• Phone: 770-366-1589
• Email: adechant@bellsouth.net
• Instagram: Strada Napoli Pizza
• Facebook: StradaNapolipizzacart
• Twitter: Strada Napoli Pizza @StradaNapoli
• Yelp: strada Napoli Pizza
• Other: Roaminghunger.com search for Strada Napoli Pizza