Ten years in, Marco and Elena still make every dough batch by hand. That's the only thing about Hearthstone that has ever felt ordinary.
Marco Vitale grew up in his grandmother's kitchen in Sorrento, watching her stretch dough the same way every Saturday morning. He learned that good pizza isn't about technique as much as it is about patience. Elena DiRosa, who grew up in Burlington, met Marco in Florence during a semester abroad. She'd never had pizza like his. She wasn't going back to New England pizza after that.
They moved to Burlington in 2012. Marco spent two years working front-of-house at a restaurant on Church Street, saving money and developing the menu. Elena managed the business side, scouting locations, building relationships with local farms, and figuring out how to get a 4,000-pound wood-fired oven through a Vermont winter without cracking.
Hearthstone opened in April 2015 with twelve tables, one oven, and no signage for the first three weeks because the sign company ran behind. People found them anyway. By June, there was a line out the door on Fridays. There still is.
The centerpiece of Hearthstone is a Valoriani Verace wood-fired oven, hand-built in Caserta, Italy by one of the oldest oven-making families in Campania. It took eight months to source and commission, three weeks to ship, and four days to install properly because the entryway wasn't quite wide enough and Marco refused to widen it.
The dome is made from Vesuvian volcanic rock and high-refractory terracotta. It reaches 850 to 950 degrees Fahrenheit and holds that temperature for hours on a single load of hardwood — mostly cherry and maple, sourced locally from a woodlot in Jericho, Vermont. The floor stone absorbs and radiates heat evenly, which is what gives Neapolitan pizza its hallmark spotted, chewy bottom.
A Neapolitan pizza cooks in 60 to 90 seconds. Every pie gets rotated twice during that time by hand using a long turning peel. It requires attention you can't automate. Marco does most of it himself, and he is, as Elena puts it, "almost impossible to rush."
The oven runs every day we're open. On a busy Saturday, it fires more than 120 pizzas. It has never been turned off for anything other than cleaning.
We're lucky to be in a state where the farms are excellent and the farmers are generous with their time. We visit them. They visit us. It makes a difference in the food.
Seasonal vegetables from Intervale Community Farm and Pete's Greens in Craftsbury. Herbs grown in our own back-lot planters, tended by Elena through the growing months.
Fresh mozzarella from Shelburne Farms. Aged Parmigiano imported directly from Parma. Local ricotta from a small creamery in Charlotte, VT that Marco has worked with since 2016.
We use a blend of Caputo 00 flour from Naples and stone-ground whole wheat from Nitty Gritty Grain Company in Charlotte, Vermont. The blend is Marco's — it took two years to get right.
"We import what Vermont can't grow — San Marzano tomatoes, good anchovies, prosciutto di Parma. Everything else, we buy as close to home as we can find it. Not because it's a marketing line. Because the food tastes better."
— Marco Vitale, Co-Founder
72-hour dough. Sauces simmered from scratch. Roasted garlic made fresh every morning. Speed is for chains. We make food the way it deserves to be made.
We donate to the Chittenden Food Shelf every month and host an annual fundraiser for Vermont youth programs. Burlington made Hearthstone possible. We try to give that back.
We know the names of the people who grow our food. We don't use the word "local" loosely. If it's on our menu with a farm name attached, we can tell you the farmer's last name.
Marco trained at his grandmother's side in Sorrento and later apprenticed under a third-generation pizzaiolo in Naples before bringing the craft to Burlington. He is the one turning pies at the oven every night.
Elena runs the floor, manages the sourcing relationships, and keeps the business running with the same attention to detail she brings to everything. She is also responsible for the dessert menu, which is extraordinary.
James joined Hearthstone in 2017 after working in kitchens in Montreal and Portland, Maine. He runs the pasta program and the salads, and he has an unreasonable talent for seasonal specials that sell out before 7 PM.
April 2015. Twelve tables, no signage, and a line down Church Street by mid-June. The Vitales don't sleep much that first summer.
Vermont's alt-weekly names Hearthstone Best New Restaurant of the year. The review calls Marco's Margherita "the best pizza in the state, full stop."
By popular demand, Marco and Elena build a second portable oven for on-site catering. First event is a wedding in Shelburne for 90 guests.
James joins the kitchen. The pasta menu expands. Rigatoni Bolognese becomes the most-ordered non-pizza dish in Hearthstone's history.
The line is still out the door on Fridays. Marco still turns every pizza by hand. Elena still knows every regular's name. Some things don't need to change.
Reservations help, especially on weekends. Walk-ins are always welcome when we have room. Either way, we're glad you're here.