Playa Pizza is a restaurant concept that Chef Stephen Facella and his wife envisioned for their next chapter. “Playa” is the Spanish word for “beach.”

“We created the two best things we love, which are pizza and the ocean, and try to get a beach-themed surfer-vibe pizza place,” said Facella.

Chef Facella has been in the business of making pies since he was young.

“When I was in the 7th grade, I begged my local pizza parlor to get me a job. I was so young, and it was so illegal, but they did,” Facella remembers.

All those years of pizza creation have led Facella to refine and perfect his favorite pizza recipes.

“We cover this in what we call sand. It’s a mixture of semolina and high gluten flour. Yeast is alive. Dough is living. So we’re going to get all the gas out gently. I want the center to be really thick so that my toppings can lie on there.”

The pizza that Facella is referring to is called Judge Number 2 because, during a huge pizza-making competition, one judge wasn’t so kind to him.

“It’s named after the judge that sunk me into the international pizza challenge. As we say in the South, Bless Your Heart, Judge #2,” he said.

So Facella is getting back at this judge by now spotlighting his simple slice, with spreadable cheese, cup and char pepperoni, homemade sauce, and an East Coast cheese blend that’s not too stringy, which he affectionately calls the official suntan lotion of Playa Pizza.

Playa Pizza is on Reams Rd. in Windermere, just off of Winter Garden Vineland Rd. near Bay Lake.