The first thing you’re likely to see walking into Mama Ev’s Pizzeria in Whitefish is the towering brick oven, which rises up above the countertops of the restaurant’s open kitchen. With an upward range of 2,000 degrees and enough capacity to roast a small flock of chickens, or perhaps a whole hog, the oven is instead devoted to producing tender, but lightly crisped, gently-puffed pizzas of the Neapolitan variety.
The proprietor and namesake, Eva Volcikova, described being indelibly marked by the food she consumed years ago while traveling through Italy, and how the pizza there — created with fresh, quality ingredients — seemingly produced something memorable with each mouthful of food.
“I always want to recreate that feeling of, ‘It’s the best bite.’” Volcikova said.
Realizing that vision has been a lengthy process for Volcikova, who is originally from the Czech Republic, and came to the United States for college. She eventually started a family and put down roots on the East Coast, but about a decade ago, after the death of her mother, Volcikova said she began to think about how that part of the country was never where she intended to be, but rather somewhere she just ended up.
Her father had taught her to ski at the age of 3, and she did the same for her own kids. It wasn’t long before she realized that lifelong love could help direct her to a place where she wanted to be.
“I said to my kids, ‘Life’s too short. We’re moving to a ski town,’” Volcikova said. “And that was it, you know. And we found Whitefish. We loved it. And within a year, I moved everything and everyone here, and I bought the hotel.”
The hotel is the Chalet Inn, which sits roughly 15 feet away from Mama Ev’s. The pizzeria is actually a converted indoor pool that had been in disrepair and used for storage for years. Volcikova was so embarrassed with how it looked during its storage space years that she would cover up the windows. Now, the large south and west facing windows let natural light stream into the restaurant, which bustles with life as chef Jose Lopez and his small staff, rounded out by two of his sons, works to assemble the pizzas and salads that constitute Mama Ev’s menu.
Volcikova said that the name, “Mama Ev’s,” was the suggestion of the people who have come to know her, often through her kids. A home cook who loves to gather organic ingredients and try new recipes, but who also has the skill and confidence to make up recipes on the fly, Volcikova said she loves to cook for people, including her kids’ friends, who were the ones that started calling her “Mama Ev.”
Mama Ev’s opened up in December 2024, several years after Volcikova first envisioned turning the space into a pizzeria. The delay was caused by what Volcikova described as a four-year-long search for a beer-and-wine license, which she said is a critical component for restaurants that want to turn a profit. In the interim, Volcikova said that a pizza-eating experience in New York City so moved her that she asked to speak to the chef, who happened to be Lopez. She described him as someone who is proud of the food that he makes, and said he was flattered that she wanted to compliment him directly. “I said, ‘Listen, Jose, not today, not this year, but I am opening a pizzeria in Whitefish, Montana,’ and he laughed, you know, and we exchanged numbers.”
The two kept in touch for a few years, with Lopez intermittently expressing interest in her progress. By the time Volcikova had the bones of the restaurant in place, and the permits and licenses in hand, Lopez had decided he was ready to leave Queens and try something new.
A veteran of the restaurant industry who got his start in Mexico and spent decades in New York City working at high-end Italian restaurants, Lopez shares Volcikova’s vision for a small menu that rests on a foundation of quality, locally and regionally sourced ingredients, with an emphasis on using organic products.
For example, the flour for Mama Ev’s sourdough pizza dough comes from Montana Flour & Grains in Fort Benton. It’s mixed with a small amount of ancient grains, including Kamut and red wheat. The blend is intended to give the dough a bit of a rustic feel without compromising too much on the suppleness of Neapolitan pizza. Because of the high heat the oven is set to for pizza, somewhere shy of 1,000 degrees, the pizza spends just a few minutes in the oven before it’s retrieved, plated and served whole, with a set of pizza scissors for slicing. Serving the pizzas whole is a convention adopted by some Neapolitan style pizzerias to try and prevent the cheese and sauce from sinking down into the crust before it’s ready to eat.
The menu at Mama Ev’s is small, but Volcikova said the idea is to start out simple and ensure they can perfect everything before looking to expand offerings. By early March, just a few months removed from Mama Ev’s December opening, the restaurant offered six styles of pizza, including a daily special, three salads, and a dessert of the day. The drink menu includes a variety of beers, seltzers and non-alcoholic beverages, including homemade raspberry, blackberry or regular lemonade. Volcikova is particularly proud of the array of wines they offer, all of them procured from small, boutique vineyards.
The pizzas, made with organic ingredients, include traditional margherita and pepperoni pizzas, as well as a white pizza with spinach, gorgonzola, mozzarella and sauteed onions, a mushroom pizza with gorgonzola mozzarella, mushrooms, goat cheese, rosemary and thyme, and a prosciutto and arugula pizza.
The prosciutto and arugula pizza is a favorite of Lopez’s, and the chef slices the prosciutto for the pizza daily. With a light tomato sauce, the pizza enters the oven with nothing other than a coat of cheese. Once it’s done baking, Lopez gently builds a bed of fresh arugula on top, followed by sliced prosciutto, and shaved parmesan, before finishing it with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.
Volcikova said she envisions the pizzeria as a place where you don’t need to feel self-conscious for showing up fresh off the mountain in ski clothes, or after a mountain bike ride. “I feel like some places stare you up and down, or when you have kids and kids make a mess. Kids should make a mess,” Volcikova said. “That’s what I want here. I want life here, not some fine dining room. I want everyone to be happy here, and just get the best food, and get the best drinks.”
Mama Ev’s Pizzeria is located 6430 U.S. Highway 93 South. It’s open 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. For more information, check out their Instagram page at Instagram.com/mamaevpizza.