Reporter Food: Bigalora Wood Fired Cucina in Downtown Royal Oak
(Crystal A. Proxmire, Nov. 11, 2021)
Royal Oak, Plymouth, Ann Arbor, Southfield, MI – The quest to try every restaurant in Oakland County continues with this visit to Bigalora Wood Fired Cucina’s Royal Oak location.
For this feast a friend and I shared a Caprioccoisa pizza and a couple of appetizers. We started with risotto balls made of saffron rice, mozzarella, peas, bolognese, and marinara. And we also had Delecta Squash which were slices of squash baked with goat cheese, walnut, and Michigan maple syrup. Both of these small plates packed big flavors.
The Capricciosa pizza was also amazing. This gourmet pie came topped with house blend mozzarella, Italian ham, fresh mushroom and artichoke – an absolutely amazing combination. Pizza choices are divided into red and white based on whether or not they have marinara sauce. Other reds include the Margherita (Buffalo mozzarella, olive oil, and basil), Salame (house blend mozzarella, olives, artichoke, and fennel pork sausage), and Tonno (tuna, no cheese, kalamata olives, and capers).
For white pizza choices try the Pistachio, Manila Clams, Funghi, Crispy Burssels Sprouts, Pesto Genovese and more.
There are also several other small plates choices like Sunday Meatballs, Wood Roasted Winds, Fried Calamari, Heirloom Carrots and more.
According to their website, “Bigalora’s founder and chef Luciano Del Signore was born in the United States after his parents emigrated from Abruzzo, Italy in the mid-20th century. Luciano grew up working in the kitchen of his parents’ restaurant, the excellent neighborhood Italian cucina Fonte d’Amore in Livonia, Michigan. As a teenager Luciano began developing his cooking talents both at “The Fonte” and during long family trips back to his parents’ hometown in Italy.
“In 2002 Luciano opened Bacco Ristorante in Southfield, a fine-dining Italian restaurant with an emphasis on inventive, contemporary dishes. Over the years Bacco has won numerous “Restaurant of the Year” awards and Chef Luciano has had multiple James Beard Award nominations. After establishing Bacco’s success, Luciano began experimenting with natural-yeast sourdough bread recipes to see if he could reproduce an authentic Neopolitan pizza dough. In his research he discovered a simple recipe for “biga,” an ancient Italian starter made from wheat flour, water, and naturally-occurring yeast. This led to the opening of the first Bigalora Wood Fired Cucina in Southfield. The concept was to provide his friends, family, and Bacco customers a more casual dining experience while retaining Bacco’s standards for clean, authentic cooking. With the success of the first Bigalora, Chef has developed the restaurant into a repeatable business that now feeds several metro Detroit communities.”
Bigalora Wood Fired Cucina has locations in Ann Arbor, Royal Oak, Plymouth, and Southfield. Each location has indoor dining, patio dining, curbside pickup, and delivery. Learn more at https://bigalora.com.
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White Castle is the Reporter Food sponsor of Oakland County Times, supporting our quest to explore restaurants throughout Oakland County. Find White Castle locations, and more information about all their menu options, at www.whitecastle.com.
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