I’m obsessed with the pizza at this one-man shop in Elkins Park

Pizzerias crave visibility, but there’s no sign pointing to Apizzeria 888 by Sebastian. It’s a true hole in the wall you’ll likely blow right past while trying to keep up with traffic whizzing along Old York Road in Elkins Park.

Sebastian doesn’t care.

Right now, Sebastian Besiso is working for himself and by himself: 40 pies a night, walk-in or call-in, pickup only, limited menu, and no third-party delivery after he got frustrated with UberEats’ fees one night and smashed the order tablet to bits.

Besiso has an endgame — and Apizzeria is more of a lab than a pizzeria. He views it as a test ground for something bigger — what he cryptically calls part of a “social media interactive platform that will drive people directly to a restaurant.” It won’t be a delivery service, he said, but will offer the technology to give pizzerias better control over their business.

That would also mean moving beyond Apizzeria’s cramped takeout setting. “I want a real dine-in experience where people can come, sit down, enjoy themselves, eat Roman and Neapolitan pizza, and drink halal beer,” he said. “This current setup is not sustainable long-term.”

Besiso is the first to say that you may not like his pizza, especially if you prefer more conventional New York or Neapolitan styles, as many of his Elkins Park neighbors seem to. His “Roma” has two kinds of aged cheese, a smear of a slightly sweet tomato basil sauce, and an almost impossibly thin crust that shatters around the edges as you bite in. There is no flop whatsoever. It has the crunchy, cheese-on-the-bottom qualities of Chicago tavern-style, though Besiso slices his pies into conventional eighths, not party squares. Toppings include beef pepperoni and sausage crumbles.

His pizzas are well-done. “People around here will say, ‘You burned my pizza,’” he said. “I tell them, ‘Just take a bite.’”

His customers — and I am one — take a bite and love it. I’m obsessed.

“I’m not saying I’m better,” Besiso said last week, rolling out a 7-ounce dough ball into a 14-inch round — about half the weight of what’s used in a conventional New York-style pizza of the same size. “I’m saying this is my style.”

That restraint can confuse customers. “They look at a $25 price for a 14-inch pizza and feel cheated,” Besiso said. “They judge by quantity, not quality.”

I asked Gregorio Fierro, a local consultant well versed in pizza styles and parlors around the world, to tag along on a visit. “You can easily finish a 14-inch pie and not feel weighed down,” he said, impressed. “It’s not one of those heavy pizzas where you feel stuffed.”

Besiso, 42, started in the pizza business 20 years ago before he went to Drexel for chemical engineering. While building his career, he worked at the Pizza Gourmet, a parlor in Northeast Philadelphia, before buying Brandywine Pizza in Spring Garden with his brother. In 2020, he took over his current location, then called New Venice Pizza, across from Elkins Park Square. During the pandemic, he opened the shop for overnight deliveries. In his idle moments, he began tinkering with hydration, fermentation, yeast, and oven temperature and fell down the pizzaiolo rabbit hole.

After working overseas on an engineering job, he came back and last month rebranded the shop; “888” is a lucky number.

Besiso keeps everything close to the vest: He says he “ages” his dough at least two weeks and uses just a speck of yeast and much lower hydration than other shops. The Roma’s base is a low-moisture mozzarella blend. (“Let’s leave it at that,” he said.) A grated cheese goes on top. “People assume it’s Parmigiano Reggiano, but it’s not,” he said. (Fierro suspects it’s Pecorino Romano.)

Besiso’s real talent is his mastery of his 60-year-old Blodgett deck oven. He pulls out each pizza near the end, lets it rest, and then slides it back for the final few seconds. Even that tiny step makes the pizza crunchier. When the pie is done, he sets it on a rack — not a pan — for cutting to preserve even more snap.

Besiso’s cardboard pizza box also plays a role. He hand-punctures each with rows of small holes for ventilation. “Steam is not your friend,” Besiso said. “You close the box, drive 10 or 15 minutes, and the steam ruins everything.”

If you’re not local, the smart move is to call in your order, park in the lot around back, get paper plates, snag a Mexican Coke or a Fanta from the fridge, and enjoy the pizza on the hood of your car. You can take home the pizza and pop it into a hot oven for two minutes, if you must.

Right now, Besiso is developing his own panuozzo — a flat, pizzalike bread — for a line of sandwiches. If you like those, you like them, he said. “And if you don’t, you don’t.”

Apizzeria 888 by Sebastian, 8021 Old York Rd., Elkins Park, 215-635-1200. Hours: 5 to 8 p.m. Tuesday to Thursday, 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.