The line on a Friday night at Quanto Basta is nine bodies deep, filled with well-heeled couples, groups of tatted-up friends, and young parents with infants dozing in their BabyBjörns. At the center of it all, a hulking, 2,000-pound Fiero Forni pizza oven heaves and sparks as charred veggies and bubbly disks of dough fly in and out of it, its miniature metallic-beige tiles shimmering.
“It’s my giant disco ball,” laughs owner, pastry chef, and pizza maestro Betsy English. “She’s my bling-y dream—and the biggest investment I have in the space.” She said space is the next phase of her journey with Quanto Basta, which began as a mobile operation she launched during Covid, after moving to Portland following years of making pizza in Rome. “I knew I didn’t want a traditional food truck,” she recalls, “and my father-in-law had this awesome car sitting in his garage—a 1959 Morris Minor, which were once used as mail cars in the UK.
“The hope was to translate that incredible energy the mobile operation had to a physical space,” she says, “and offer people an experience that feels a little transportive.” Indeed, the 20-seat room is reminiscent of the tiny cafés scattered throughout Italy, with its slim, marbled bar facing a wooden and mirrored cabinet teeming with bottles of spirits like Amaro, Aperol, and Campari. White brick walls are punctuated with giant bouquets of wildflowers and simple mood lighting pendants.
Since the place is walk-in only, order at the register and grab one of the marble tables; the staff will bring your order over as it emerges from the bar or oven. Vegetable specials like blistered fava beans are served with bagna cauda—an addictive dip that’s a glorious foil for any vegetables that hit the oven. The combination of smooth garlic, anchovy-laden lemon, and butter is pure bliss (Although we discovered that dipping our pizza crusts in it was equally satisfying).
The pizza doughs, meanwhile, are chewy, loaded with bubbles, and scattered with chopped fresh herbs. Pies like the Salsiccia sing with rich garlic confit, spicy Italian sausage, buffalo mozzarella from Campania, and broccolini ripassata—meaning steamed, then fried in olive oil until sweetly crispy.
Worth noting is how carefully edited the pizza ingredients are. Quanto Basta translates to “just enough” in Italian, and the philosophy of letting just a few high-quality, simple foods shine is an Italian culinary axiom. “That, paired with everything on the menu, corresponds with what’s in season here in Maine,” Betsy says. She also makes a strong argument for treating pizza with more respect than it often gets. “Pizza can be a very meaningful vehicle for telling a story,”she insists. “Working with a naturally leavened product is a labor of love, and I choose the ingredients very deliberately.”
And then there’s the bar program, a thoughtful selection of natural Southern Italian wines and spritzes, evoking the Italian experience Betsy hopes to recreate. “Aperitivo is one the best times of day to be out and about in Italy,” she says. “It plays with the fun vibes I wanted to bring to Portland.” ▪
