Jupiter's favorite sourdough baker launches new Pizza Nights, features local toppings
Johnny VanCora is the rare pizza aficionado who travels to southern Italy and doesn’t come back with a burning desire to replicate the pizza. But on his most recent visit, the Jupiter baker did experience a lightbulb moment that sparked a new pizza venture.
VanCora, the baker behind Jupiter’s beloved Bread by Johnny sourdough bakery, recently kicked off a Monday-night series of pizza nights at the bakery. It’s a series inspired by his experiences in Italy.
The 27-year-old baker says he never understood the “hype of Neapolitan pizza” until he had it in Naples.
“The pizza there is a showcase of the place,” says VanCora. “I saw that pizza could be a great canvas.”
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That’s the idea behind Bread by Johnny’s Monday pizza nights, which VanCora launched Aug. 14. Pizza is not only a way for him to feature the bakery’s artisanal sourdough operation but also a way for him to celebrate local food growers and purveyors.
“I want our pizza to be a canvas that shows off our great produce and ingredients,” says VanCora, who grew up in the Jupiter area.
On his first night, he made two types of 16-inch pizzas inspired by local products.
VanCora topped his Margherita pie with locally made Mozzarita mozzarella, western Lake Worth-grown African blue basil and packed, imported tomatoes from one of the vendors he met on the local greenmarket circuit. VanCora’s Shroom pizza was laden with Loxahatchee-grown maitake and oyster mushrooms rubbed in berbere spice.
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The pies not only reinforce an inspired young baker’s love of sourdough, but also reflect his community of indie greenmarket vendors and artisans that support one another’s endeavors.
“The greenmarket is where I’ve met so many amazing people,” says VanCora, who operates Bread by Johnny stands at the Palm Beach Gardens and West Palm Beach greenmarkets.
Those fellow vendors include farmers from Kai-Kai, Swank, Gratitude Garden and Red Splendor farms, cheesemakers from Mozzarita, Gringuita cookie baker Caroline McGinley, olive oil and honey purveyors and others.
VanCora says he wants to showcase local farm products during the growing season.
“I want all the end of season tomatoes, too. We’ll have Florida tomato sauce on the pizza,” he says, who bakes the pizza at 530 degrees in his bread oven.
The response to VanCora’s pizza night launch was overwhelming. Before opening time on the first night, he found eager customers already lined up at the door. From 5 to 9 p.m. that night, VanCora sold more than 135 sourdough-crust pizzas.
He didn’t expect such a demand, and he didn’t expect some of those first-night customers would have to wait nearly 45 minutes for their pizzas. VanCora had taken online reservations for the pies but allowed walk-ins as well.
The customer demand forced him to streamline his initial pizza night plans. Instead of two pies, VanCora will offer only the Margherita pizza during the Monday series. And for now, he asks customers to pre-order their pies via the “Pizza Night” tab on bakery’s website, BreadByJohnny.com, instead of simply walking in.
VanCora hopes these tweaks will smooth out the process until his pizza night series hits its stride. His end goal, he says, is to open a separate pizzeria.
“I haven’t signed a space yet, but if we can open by this time next year, it would be great,” he says.
One memory that’s driving his pizzeria dream takes him back to Italy. VanCora still remembers the details of a pizza he enjoyed during a visit to a small town outside of Sorrento. It was topped with local baccalà (salt cod), caciocavallo cheese, cherry tomatoes and oil-cured olives.
“It wasn’t like any pizza I’ve seen in the United States. It was weird and funky, but it was all local,” he says. “I want to do the same here.”
Bread by Johnny Pizza Nights
What: Bread by Johnny bakery offers pizza nights from 5 to 9 p.m. on Mondays, when the shop is usually closed.
Location: 1695 W. Indiantown Rd., Suite 6, Jupiter, 561-768-9423
How to order: Click on the “Pizza Night” tab on BreadByJohnny.com. Pre-orders accepted until pizza slots sell out. No walk-ins for now.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Bread by Johnny bakery in Jupiter offers sourdough pizza venture
