A Summerlin Italian Kitchen Is Trying Something New: A Late-Night Pizza Party Inspired by Naples

La Strega is launching a quarterly after-hours series this Sunday, teaming its own chef with a Chinatown pizza star for a roaming, Naples-inspired pizza night.

A New After-Hours Tradition Lands in Summerlin

La Strega, the modern Italian kitchen on Town Center Drive known for its regional Italian menu, is rolling out something it has never tried before: a recurring late-night gathering built for guests who want to keep the evening going after the dinner rush winds down. The first installment, called La Strega After Dark, lands this coming Sunday, July 19, running from nine to eleven in the evening.

Instead of the usual sit-down service, the dining room shifts into a looser, roaming format once the kitchen's regular hours wrap. Guests wander between stations rather than waiting on courses, closer in spirit to a cocktail party than a formal dinner reservation.

The plan is to repeat the series roughly once a season, with a different pairing or theme built around each installment. That makes this debut night less a one-off pop-up and more the opening chapter of what could become a recurring date on the local Italian dining calendar.

Why Naples Set the Theme

For the launch, chef Gina Marinelli leaned into the after-dark pizzeria culture found in Naples, where casual counter-style pizza spots stay lively well past midnight, rather than building a heavier, plated tasting menu around the evening.

To bring that energy into Summerlin, she brought in Erica Bell, who runs the ovens at Double Zero Pie & Pub over in Chinatown, to work a live pizza station alongside La Strega's own cooks for the night.

Bell's path to pizza was a bit sideways. She spent years producing beer festivals, art shows, and music events before stepping behind an oven at all, and picked up dough handling and fermentation largely on the job. Since taking the reins in Double Zero's kitchen, she has helped the Chinatown pizzeria land back-to-back spots on a national ranking of the country's top fifty pizzerias.

What's on Offer, and What It Costs

The menu for the night is built around a continuous rotation rather than a fixed course order. Pies keep coming out of the oven throughout the two-hour window, paired with charcuterie boards and other grazing bites, plus a compact lineup of beer and wine to match.

Access runs sixty dollars per person, with tax and gratuity already folded into that figure, and the event is restricted to guests twenty-one and older. Reservations through the restaurant's own website are the safer route, though a limited number of walk-ins may be worked in if the room has space.

The vibe leans social by design: music playing, guests mingling between stations, and no assigned seating pushing anyone toward a rushed exit. It reads more like a neighborhood gathering than a typical prix fixe evening out.

What It Signals for Vegas's Italian Dining Scene

Italian spots around the valley have leaned harder into looser, social formats over the past couple of years, aperitivo hours, wine-bar seating, and now a late-night pizza gathering built to run past a normal closing time. The goal in each case is the same: give guests a reason to show up outside the traditional dinner window.

There is also something notable in a sit-down Italian kitchen inviting a pizzaiola from an entirely different concept to run its own station for the night. It suggests pizza is increasingly treated as its own genre worth crossover collaboration, not a separate category kept at arm's length from a full Italian menu.

If a roaming pizza night with real dough, good company, and no rush toward the check sounds appealing, come dine with us any evening you are craving that same spirit. We keep the oven fired and the table set for whoever walks in ready for a good pie and a good conversation.

Seven Things to Know Before You Go

Here is the rundown for anyone weighing a trip to the debut installment of La Strega After Dark.

1. The date and hours: The first night runs this Sunday, July 19, from nine to eleven in the evening, after normal dinner service wraps.
2. The price: Tickets run sixty dollars per person, with tax and tip already built into that number.
3. The age limit: This one is for adults only, with entry restricted to guests twenty-one and older.
4. The format: Rather than a seated tasting menu, guests move freely between rotating pizza, charcuterie, and drink stations.
5. The guest pizzaiola: Erica Bell, who leads the kitchen at Double Zero Pie & Pub in Chinatown, mans a live pizza station for the night.
6. The bigger plan: La Strega intends to bring the series back roughly once a season, swapping in a new theme or collaborator each time.
7. How to get in: Booking ahead through La Strega's website is the safer bet, though a small number of walk-ins may be accommodated if space allows.

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