The Story
Corey Mazza opened Driftwood Oven in 2018 in Lawrenceville after years of perfecting his dough and building a following through pop-ups and farmers markets. The restaurant is built around a custom wood-fired oven and a commitment to Neapolitan-style pizza made with locally milled flour.
The pies are beautifully blistered, with a chewy, slightly charred crust that comes from the extreme heat of the wood-fired oven. Toppings rotate seasonally: spring might bring ramps and local mushrooms, fall brings squash and brown butter. The simplicity is the point.
Driftwood quickly earned recognition as one of Pittsburgh's best pizza spots, competing with and often surpassing the city's more established Italian restaurants.
What Makes It Pittsburgh
Driftwood Oven is part of a wave of artisan food makers who chose Pittsburgh because the city's economics let them build something real. Mazza could source local grain, build a custom oven, and open a restaurant without the impossible overhead that would have crushed the same concept in Brooklyn or San Francisco.
The restaurant's Lawrenceville home puts it at the center of Pittsburgh's most dynamic dining neighborhood.