Marseille, the Naples of France
Looking cool in Marseille
Ahh, Marseille, what do we really know about you? You’re French, you’ve got drugs and drug lords, and no one ever really knows how to pronounce you (is it MarsELLS or MarSAY?). What a lot of people really don’t know though, is that Marseille is a pizza MECCA, full of incredible pizzerias in a city that’s a little rough around the edges but with so much soul to offer.
There was one pizzeria I read about everywhere: La Bonne Mère. However, we sadly couldn’t get a reservation there, and so I was grumpy for about ten minutes until we came up with plan B: Chez Etienne, a pizzeria that has been in the same family for four generations. After exploring the city, we headed there for dinner. As we opened the door we were met with a whoosh of warm pizza air and the bustle and noise of an incredibly busy restaurant, full of families and friends. There wasn’t a free table in the place. We were greeted quickly and told we could share a table with a solo diner that had already started his meal (gotta love France and their awkward table sharing!). So we carefully sat down next to our new table mate and tried our best to keep to our side and not disturb the solo diner.
Olives galore in Chez Etienne
There are two types of pizzas here, and that’s it! Either anchovies or cheese. When in Rome, so we ordered a pizza for two people that was half anchovies and half cheese. The typical Marseille pizza! One half was a salty umami bomb with black olives and anchovies, garlic and oregano, and no cheese. The other half was basically the same but instead of anchovies it came with emmenthal cheese. Those Marseillaises love their salt! I loved everything about it: the pizza, the place, the ambience, the city.
Does it get any cooler than this?
After a very emblematic dinner at Chez Etienne, it was time for dessert. What better for dessert than… another pizza! Listen, we only had one night in Marseille and we had to make it count. So we headed to the über popular Pizza Charly, where there was a line about ten people deep. Considered an absolute institution in Marseille and open since 1962, ordering was stressful and confusing and made me nervous. Thankfully Dani took the reigns here and managed to seamlessly order us a veggie pizza, that was ready in about ten minutes despite the gaggle of peeps loitering outside the pizzeria.
Dani proud and happy after ordering our veggie pizza entirely in French as I hid scared behind him
Such a professional photo I got of our veggie pizza we ate in the street for dessert
How was our pizza? It was a piping hot freshly made pizza with fresh veggies on top, and I was very happy. Is it a pizza that I will remember fondly for years to come? Yes, it is! But not necessarily because of the pizza itself. While genuinely all the pizza we had was very good, I have had much better pizzas in many other places, but I don’t know that I’ve ever had pizza in such a unique and authentic city. I loved the pizza because of the city, with its grit and culture, its striped cathedral and endless pizza options. Its port and its history, and most of all because Dani and I spent one glorious afternoon and evening strolling the streets of Marseille and getting by just fine with our French. I was even able to call a restaurant and ask for a reservation, and completely understand when they told me they didn’t have no room for us. I call that a win.
Until the next time, Marseille!
Other honorable mention pizzerias in Marseille:
-La Bonne Mère (A must! Learn from us and make reso in advance)
-Glacier Vanille Noire - okay so not a pizzeria but this ice cream place makes world famous black vanilla ice cream… YUM!
