"We All Scream for Pizza!"

By Randi Bjornstad

For those who mourn the passing of decades worth of ice cream sundaes at the corner of 13th and Pearl in downtown Eugene, cheer up. The next food offering at 1313 Pearl St. ”utterly authentic Italian pizza” is on the way and should be open by summer. It’s called La Perla.

Beppe Macchi and John “Gianni” Barofsky, whose Beppe & Gianni’s Trattoria will celebrate its 10th anniversary in August, have teamed up with architect Nir Pearlson to transform the kitschy soda fountain decor of the former ice cream parlor into a gathering place that’s “Northwest contemporary with an urban buzz and shadows of ancient Italy.”

Plans for the site feature clean lines of stucco, glass and steel outside. The interior has airy wood ceilings, timbered posts and beams and lots of “bold color and form—even the colorful food will be part of the decor,” Pearlson said. “We want the corner on the 13th (Avenue) side to have real urban chic, with the bar visible through oversized windows, and the sparkle of light,” he said “The rest of the front on Pearl Street will be more ordered and classical, with the suggestion of Italian arches, but nothing literal.”

The design of the building will be like the food—individual pizzas, salads, desserts and fine beers and wines—that Barofsky calls “simple but not easy,” Pearlson said.
Macchi and Barofsky intend to pursue certification of their future pizzas from the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana—loosely translatable as an association for the preservation of original pizza from the area of Naples. The distinction depends on a visit from the associazione’s certification committee to make sure the ingredients, appliances and pizza-baking oven turn out the real thing.

“There are only 18 certified true Italian pizzerias in the United States, and only 250 in the world,” Macchi said. “Four are in Seattle, and California has a couple.” The unusual oven has to be a special, domed affair that bakes a pizza in less than 90 seconds, Barofsky said. “The stones in the bottom of the oven reach a temperature of 700 degrees, and the heat in the dome is 1,400 to 1,500 degrees,” he said. “The pizza goes in for 30 seconds, then it’s (rotated) and baked another 30 seconds. After that, you lift it into the dome for about 20 seconds, and it’s done.”

The edges of the “true pizza” may strike some as looking a bit burned because of the texture of the dough and the high heat of the oven, “but that’s authentic—that’s the way they’re supposed to look,” Macchi said. Ingredients will be simple, fresh and very Italian, he said.

The concept of La Perla—it means “the pearl” in Italian—has been in the works for a long time. “We first started thinking about a pizzeria about eight years ago,” Macchi said. “But it was too early,” Barofsky finished. “We’ve been seriously working on it for almost three years—we’ve looked at several sites, but they either didn’t work out financially, or the aesthetics didn’t feel right.” When the pair heard that the ice cream parlor site was available, everything came together, Barofsky said. “We liked the proximity to downtown and to the West University Neighborhood. We liked the location on two busy streets that don’t really seem that busy, and there’s plenty of parking.”
Their greatest fear was the reaction of people in the community to the change, “because there’s such a longstanding history of having an ice cream parlor there, …so we decided to bring Nir (Pearlson) in to make the rest of the transition.”

Macchi and Barofsky also want to give the public a chance to take away their own mementos of the former ice cream parlor. Many of the furnishings—the siren and drum used to announce the presence of a birthday child, the freestanding signpost, metal ice cream bowls and even a half-dozen of the fabled “pig’s trough” sundae dishes—remain inside the building, along with lighting fixtures, a kitchen full of utensils and appliances, chairs and marble-topped tables. These items and more will be available for sale at the restaurant this weekend, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Macchi and Barofsky said they’re not sure how much the transformation of La Perla will cost, but estimate it in the “hundreds of thousands of dollars.” Financing of the project will be through locally owned Liberty Bank, with an additional loan through the city of Eugene’s emerging business loan program. Macchi and Barofsky have a lease-option on the property.

“The city has a fund they loan out to new businesses that create jobs,” Barofsky said. “The loan is at slightly lower than market rate, and then when it’s paid back, it’s used to help other new businesses.” La Perla probably will have 30 to 40 part- and full-time employees, and plans call for opening the pizzeria by the end of May. “We’re already paying rent, so we need to get it up and open,” he said.

The tear-out of the interior of the restaurant should start by the end of this month, said Pearlson, whose recent projects include the transformation of the old Book Mark location at 856 Olive St. to Hugh Duvall Law Offices, and Imagine Graphics, formerly Miller Paint, at 990 Garfield St. Although there’s no plan to go for LEED certification for “green” construction, he said, the building will have many similar features, such as increased insulation, high-efficiency electrical and mechanical systems, solar panels, heat recovery and use of reclaimed materials.