Acclaimed Roman-Style Pizzeria to Close on June 25

Pollara Pizzeria, a Roman-style pizza shop hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as one of the best restaurants in the Bay Area, is closing down on June 25 as the owners gear up for a move to New Jersey.

Jon and Kayta Smulewitz, who have owned three restaurants in the region over more than two decades, made the announcement in a social media post on June 12. “After 23 years of making the Bay Area our home, opening three businesses, raising two kids and forming countless beautiful relationships, we have decided to take a big leap and move back to New Jersey,” the Smulewitzes wrote in the post. “While we’re excited to be closer to family and start this next chapter of our lives, it’s an emotional moment.”

The Smulewitzes opened Pollara Pizzeria in Berkeley, California, in 2019 with a focus on Roman-style pizza al taglio, cut with scissors and sold by weight.

Jon Smulewitz discovered pizza al taglio when he paid a visit to acclaimed pizzaiolo Gabriele Bonci’s Pizzarium in Rome around 2009. “It kinda changed my life,” he told East Bay Express in 2019. “I had pizza that was just mind-blowing.”

The Smulewitzes later experimented with Roman-style pizza at Adesso, a wine bar they owned until 2017. They finally went all in on the style when they opened Pollara, which was named after Jon’s grandmother. “That same feeling that I had the first time I had [pizza al taglio] I want people to have here,” Jon told East Bay Express after the restaurant opened.

The San Francisco Chronicle named Pollara Pizzeria one of the top 25 Bay Area restaurants in 2021. In January of that same year, food writer Soleil Ho wrote that Pollara was “one of the Bay Area’s most captivating pizzerias.”

Pies on the Pollara menu include the Potato Pie, the Mushroom Pie, the Diavola Pie, the Cacio e Pepe Pie and the Anchovy Pie.

In a warm farewell message to their customers, the Smulewitzes said, “We’ve had the honor of attending weddings for couples who met at our restaurants and now have their own families. We’ve enjoyed watching all of the great cooks, servers and staff who’ve come through our doors branch out on their own unique paths. We’ve treasured all the Thanksgivings, truffle dinners and New Year’s Eves that found us cheering with you into the night. Camping trips, shared amari, hikes and beach days with you have been amongst the highlights of our time here.”

“We’re not sure what our next venture will be,” the Smulewitzes noted in the social media post, adding that they “have some ideas in the works.”