Davide Di Giovanni, DMD 2000, is a dentist and pizza connoisseur who owns the family-run Pizzeria Spacca Napoli in Port Moody, BC. We connected with Dr. Di Giovanni to learn about his time at UBC Dentistry and his love for pizza.
What inspired you to go into dentistry?
My parents immigrated from Italy and worked hard to make ends meet—in the summer, our family vacation was spent picking tomatoes in the Okanagan, which we would use to make sauce for the year. My parents wanted something more for me and encouraged me to apply to dentistry after finishing my undergraduate degree in microbiology at UBC. I was a good artist and liked science, so dentistry felt like a good fit.
Do you have a highlight of your time spent at UBC Dentistry?
UBC Dentistry was one of the best times in my life—if I could rewind 25 years just to experience it again, I would! I have many close friendships from my time in dental school, and my classmate Dr. Samira Sadeghi co-owns Newport Dental with me.
One vivid memory I have was preparing for an exam involving acrylic provisionals, small, temporary restorations that you place on prepared teeth. One flew off the bench and I couldn’t find it anywhere! I was panicking because I needed it for the exam. Later that night, Dr. Sadeghi called to let me know she found it—caught in her hair!
How did your career progress after graduation?
I started working as an associate three days a week in Port Moody and three days a week in Burnaby before buying my own practice in 2006. Dr. Sadeghi joined as co-owner in 2019, and it’s been amazing working with her—we always talked about running a practice together when we were in dental school!
Do you have any advice for current dental students?
I was told Vancouver and the surrounding cities were too saturated with dental practices and that it would be hard to build a patient base, but I haven’t found that to be the case at all. I think if you communicate openly and honestly with people and build relationships with them, you will always find a loyal patient population.
Tell us about your journey opening Pizzeria Spacca Napoli.
Throughout undergrad, my childhood friend Danny and I commuted to UBC together and, food lovers that we were, we talked about food the entire way. I ended up marrying a woman from Naples, and on one of our visits there, we brought Danny along to show him how amazing the pizza was. That’s when we decided to bring an authentic Neapolitan style restaurant to Port Moody.
Danny and I opened the restaurant alongside my family in 2016 as a side hustle—I was working as a dentist from 9 am to 6 pm and then I would head to the restaurant and stay there until 11 pm. I worked the oven for the first few months while my mother-in-law made pasta in the kitchen, and my cousin is the manager now, so it’s been an incredible experience. Danny is a financial advisor, so he manages the books, and I focus on the menu. We’re always looking for ways to improve and we keep the menu as authentic to Naples as possible.
We were honoured to receive a prestigious 3 Spicchi ranking from Gambero Rosso, which is a global authority on Italian cuisine, equivalent to the Michelin Star system. This award cemented our reputation as an authentic Italian pizzeria and was validation that we’re doing things right!