Pizzeria da Michele

A slice of Italy in Amsterdam. How to build the instagrammable illusion of outdoor terrace inside a narrow city centre plan for the famous Eat Pray Love pizza place.

Location Amsterdam de Pijp

Client l'Antica pizzeria da Michele

Size 400 m2

Delivered 2022

The outside is inside

Apto was challenged to create a slice of Italy in Amsterdam. The feeling of dining ‘al fresco’ on a town square in the shadow of a lemon tree in Naples, where the original l’Antica pizzeria da Michele from the movie Eat Pray Love is located. Julia Roberts eats a juicy slice of pizza on the Amsterdam interior wall, while a green ceiling of hanging lemon plants, wall mounted lanterns and terra cotta tiles set the atmosphere to an outdoor terrace in summer in Italy. Influencers stood in line for the Amsterdam opening and guests queue up in front of the restaurant ever since.

zoning plan of a narrow ground floor with seating and open pizza kitchen in the back as focal point

Entice to the end

Houses in the Amsterdam area De Pijp (‘the Pipe’) are as narrow and long as the name suggests. We didn’t only invite the outdoors inside, we also seduce people to enter the restaurant by placing the heart of the restaurant – the pizza oven – as a shrine in the end.

The restaurant features a small open kitchen where customers can watch skilled chefs toss and bake pizzas in the golden traditional wood-fired oven.

mosaiek stone pizza oven inscribed pizzeria da michele

The look and feel immerse customers in an outdoor-inspired interior design with a vibrant roof of greenery, street lanterns and earth tones, creating a lively ambiance that feels like dining al fresco on a cozy Italian piazza.

cozy restaurant interior with people eating pizza under a ceiling of hanging lemon plants

“ I want someone to look at the interior design the same way they look at pizza ”

not Julia Roberts - interior architect at Apto

people standing in line outdoor of the Da michele pizzeria

omgevingschecker.nl data tool for planning procedures - apto architects - kurtosis

Pizzeria da Michele

The outside is inside

Entice to the end

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