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Authentic wood-fired pizza restaurant brings a taste of Italy to Dunedin

By Jason Wright
Published  March 29, 2025 1:54pm EDT
Pinellas County
FOX 13 News

Corvo Bianco Pizza

FOX 13's Jason Wright introduces you to a Dunedin restaurant that takes pride in their wood-fired oven.

The Brief

    • An authentic wood-fired pizza restaurant brings a taste of Italy to Dunedin.
    • Corvo Bianco Pizzeria and Bar uses imported flour and Italian sea salt.

DUNEDIN, Fla. - Off of Curlew Road next to the Pinellas Trail sits a wood-fired cookery that creates meals like you can get in Naples, Italy.

"We serve authentic, wood-fired Neapolitan pizzas," shared Dena Leigh the owner of Corvo Bianco Pizzeria and Bar. "We follow a hundreds-of-years old tradition. We use all of the imported flour, really clean water, imported Italian sea salt, and we ferment the dough for a very specific amount of time, so that when we use it, it's perfect every time."

Corvo Bianco Pizzeria and Bar

The backstory:

The idea of creating food the same way as Italy allowed for Leigh and her team to get creative with what they offer from their wood-fired oven.

"A lot of it comes from the idea of cooking with the wood," she said, "We build a fire, like a camp fire, in our oven every day. Our bread is made in the wood fire, our wings are made in the wood fire, our shrimp is wood-fired, our salmon is wood-fired."

They use locally sourced oak wood for the fire. Some is sun-dried and some is kiln-dried. 

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But the chefs are experts at creating the fires that keep the oven going. "Our guys chop wood every day," admitted Leigh with a smile.

They work to keep the oven at 850 degrees to bake the breads and pizzas. This means the crew is constantly rotating the food items in the oven as they monitor the fire and the heat level.

It's an experience of how cooking used to be, but it seems to be a successful business model for today.

"The locals are our biggest supporters, and we wouldn't be here without them," said Leigh, "We're very blessed."

To learn more about Corvo Bianco Pizzeria and Bar, click here.

The Source: Information for this story was gathered by FOX 13's Jason Wright.

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