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 (Rembrandtplein & De Pijp)

Client L'Antica Pizzeria Da Michele

Size 2 Locations

Delivered 2022 -2024

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 is located. This original location is featured in the world famous movie Eat Pray Love, references to which can be seen in all Pizzeria Da Michele locations which have murals of Julia Roberts eating a slice of Neapolitan pizza. 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.

Location: Pizzeria Da Michel - De Pijp

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. This posed a unique design challenge, Apto Architects turned this challenge into one of the defining features of this space. The outdoor seating area and entrance funnel visitors in, drawing them progressively closer to the heart of the restaurant – the pizza oven – from which a warm glow resonates, bringing a warm sense of familial familiarity to the dine experience.

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

A following location

From the success of the initial collaboration between Pizzeria Da Michele and Apto Architects, another location on Rembrandtplein was initiated. A new space, with once again new challenges but beyond that… new potential.

Apto was given the task of rejuvenating a decaying external façade and transforming the split level interior to a space reminiscent of the iconic cortile, an internal courtyard typical of many Italian homes.

Dark ambient lighting is scattered throughout the interior creating a cosy and trusting atmosphere in the evenings, whilst the sprawling wall of windows that make up the façade let the brightness of the sun reach all the way to the back of the property. Mirrored ceilings and Sicilian baroque white washed railings make the space deceptively spacious, one forgets they are in Amsterdam at all.

Continuity

Apto is experienced in taking on larger scale franchised projects of multiple locations. This experience has taught us that it is paramount that each of these locations have their own identifiable uniqueness whilst having a shared familiarity.

With the creation of the design of this second location Apto carried over the same fresh themes from the previous location with the hanging lemons and a familial al fresco style, but in this iteration introducing a classical Neapolitan style with plaster busts from antiquity and polished marble slabs.

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

Pizzeria Da Michele

The outside is inside

Entice to the end

A following location

Continuity

Next project