Firenze Pizzeria – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Firenze Pizzeria at 900 Park Avenue, S.W., near Central Avenue and 8th Street adjacent to Robinson Park

“We’ve got a wood-burning pizza oven in the garden
- a luxury, I know, but it’s one of the best investments I’ve ever made.”
~Gwyneth Paltrow

There really is a lot of veracity in the axiom that “your eyes are the mirror to your soul” because eyes truly do provide visual clues as to what we’re thinking. Some psychologists would have you believe that your choice of pizza toppings is also a window to your soul. So what do your favorite pizza toppings say about your personality and behavior?

One psychologist and longtime pizza lover would have you believe people who adorn their pies with pepperoni are “good team players, prepared to sacrifice their personal interests to those of the majority.” Another purports that people who prefer pepperoni have “been shown to “forget” obligations on occasion and miss out on opportunities at work and home.” Hmmm, contradictory assessments by two so-called experts. Perhaps such assessments say more about their creators than they do about the personality traits of subjects they claim to understand so well.

The interior of Firenze Pizzeria

Extending the premise that an accurate personality assessment could be discerned from your choice of toppings, why not a personality assessment based on your preference for slices instead of a whole pie? What does it say about you if you’d rather have a thick Brobdingnagian pizza over a thin wisp of a pie? Somewhere out there, an analyst is creating a profile of diners who prefer pizza from a mobile conveyance (food truck, if you will) over pizza from a pizzeria.

For those of us who love the Italian wood-fired pizzas from Firenze Mobile Wood Fired Pizza and the Italian wood-fired pizzas from the Firenze Pizzeria equally, the personality assessment would probably read something like “indecisive, timid and easily manipulated, fearful of offending others” and other such psycho-babble. From a pizza preference standpoint alone, it’s impossible to decide which is better–dining al fresco on a pizza from the Firenze mobile oven or dining under climate-controlled comfort in the pizzeria.

The unique pizza oven in which your pie is prepared

If you didn’t know the good folks who brought us Firenze pizza on wheels have expanded their operation and given Duke City pizza lovers another option for enjoying their pizza, you’re probably not alone. The Firenze Pizzeria opened its doors in May, 2013. Now, however, if you didn’t know of Firenze Mobile Wood Fired Pizza, you might not be attuned to the Duke City’s burgeoning food cart scene. Albuquerque has become a cosmopolitan cow town, joining such cities as Portland, Los Angeles and Austin as a haven for (take your pick) food trucks, food carts, mobile canteens, catering trucks and mobile kitchens. Just don’t call them roach coaches.

Firenze may well be the first of the Duke City’s mobile eateries to diversify its offerings by launching a brick and mortar operation. It wasn’t solely the success of the mobile operation that precipitated the move. Felicia and Steve Meyer matriculated into the food service world with the intention of determining whether or not they would enjoy the challenge and all the work entailed without going broke. Purchasing an Italian-made oven was less expensive than renting a storefront. Long story short, the Meyers found out they not only enjoyed making pizzas for hungry patrons, they were pretty darned good at it. Firenze quickly made it to every diner’s short list, leaving us pining for the next time we happened upon the location in which the magnificent mobile oven was parked.

The Don Corleone Pizza

Being booked every weekend for nearly two years for special events, catering and a semi-permanent gig at the Downtown Growers’ Market at Robinson Park facilitated the decision to seek a permanent venue. They found the perfect spot at 900 Park Avenue, S.W., virtually adjacent to Robinson Park. The two-story edifice Firenze now calls home has plenty of character and personality, previously having housed an art gallery and before that, El Hispano News.

The pizzeria’s cynosure is an inlaid brick oven imported from Italy. It’s not an exact replica of the mobile oven, but works similarly. Firenze burns locally sourced elm, a soft wood which isn’t especially good for smoking meats, but imparts a nice flavor to pizza dough. The oven generates temperatures of up to 800 degrees. That doesn’t portend getting your pizza quickly. Expect your order to take up to fifteen minutes to be filled as the Firenze pizzaioli stretch the dough by hand and meticulously apply the ingredients for your pie.

Quattro Formaggio: Garlic Oil, Mozzarella, Ricotta, Feta, Pecorino Romano, Roasted Garlic & Parsley

Firenze pizzas are individually sized at eleven-inches–perfect for one. The pizza isn’t exactly thin crust and not exactly New York style, but somewhere in between. The dough is made on the premises and is hand-stretched. Firenze touts its use of “only the freshest, most organic ingredients” sourced locally as much as possible. “Market specials” are made with ingredients from local farmers and purveyors. Firenze also offers a ten-inch gluten-free crust and gluten-free salad options. All pizza crusts are dairy-free and if you ask, any pizza can be made without cheese. Signature teas are housemade daily and lightly sweetened with pure cane sugar. No fountain drinks or artificially flavored beverages are served.

The Pizzeria’s menu lists three “classics:” the Margherita (the pizza which started it all), a cheese pizza and a pepperoni pizza (don’t expect the Meyers to conduct a personality assessment should you order this one). The real showcase of the important Italian oven is in its preparation of eleven artisan pizzas, some of which are very inventive. For her inaugural taste of Firenze, my Kim opted for the Quattro Formaggi, a turophile’s delight made with four cheeses: mozzarella, ricotta, feta and Pecorino Romano as well as garlic oil, roasted garlic and parsley. It’s amazing how the four cheeses complement and contrast one another: the pungent sharpness of the feta against the delicate richness of the ricotta; the familiar creaminess of the mozzarella with the hearty sheep’s milk undertones. Fromage fanatics, this one’s for you!

The Firenze mobile pizza oven

Sign up for the Firenze newsletter and you’ll receive periodic updates and news. That’s how we found out about the Don Corleone special, a pizza available only to newsletter subscribers. If ever a pizza was worthy of being considered the “Godfather” of pizzas, this would be it. Picture on a slightly charred dough canvas: tomato sauce, mozzarella, Italian sausage from Keller’s Farm, pepperoni, green olives and Copocollo ham. This is a magnificent pizza, so good I eschewed my usual practice of saving three slices for later…so good I wanted a couple more slices…so good it made it to my short list of best pizzas in New Mexico.

What makes the Don Corleone so good? Farina fanatics might find it blasphemous to learn that not everyone believes char should be part of a pizza’s flavor profile. The pies at Firenze have a light char, just enough so that you might catch a hint of it on a bite or two; it’s not the taste of “burnt” some diners complain about at Farina. The ingredients are top notch and are apportioned just a bit on the parsimonious side which lets you glean a good appreciation for the well-seasoned tomato sauce and magnificent crust. Your pie isn’t weighed down with excess which makes eating it a challenge. Moreover, it is a delicious, uncomplicated pie.

The menu also includes three salads: house salad (Romaine, cherry tomato, cucumber, Pecorino Romano, house vinaigrette), creamy pesto salad (Romaine, parmesan, cracked black pepper, croutons and a creamy pesto dressing) and the one which most piqued our interest, the Gorgonzola salad (mixed greens, Gorgonzola cheese, walnuts and Balsamic vinaigrette). Wash down your meal with Firenze’s basil mint iced tea, a black tea infused with basil and mint or with a lavender lemonade, an herbal bend of lavender tea, Italian lemon juice and pure cane sugar. You won’t miss Coke or Pepsi in the least.

Whether or not you buy into the notion that your choice of pizza ingredients says a lot about your personality, you’ll probably join the soon to be legions of pizza aficionados headed for the Robinson Park neighborhood for one of the best pies in town–a wonderful pizza whether you get it from the oven on wheels or the venerable two-story building.

Firenze Pizzeria
900 Park Avenue, S.W.
Albuquerque, New Mexico
(505) 242.2939
Web Site
LATEST VISIT: 8 June 2013
# OF VISITS: 1
RATING: *
COST: $ – $$
BEST BET: Don Corleone, Quattro Formaggio, Lavender Lemonade

Farina Alto – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Farina Alto for outstanding pizza and so much more in Albuquerque’s Northeast Heights

Much thought, deliberation and market research usually goes into the naming of a business, but every once in a while, one linguistic aspect or another isn’t fully explored to the nth degree. Take for example Chevrolet’s problems marketing the Nova in Latin America where the term “no va” means “it won’t go” in Spanish. Even though the Nova sold quite well, the car’s name wasn’t without irony and humor. Worse, a slogan for Frank Perdue chicken, “it takes a strong man to make a tender chicken,” translated (also in Spanish) as the equivalent of “it takes a sexually aroused man to make a chicken affectionate.”

Obviously, the “Alto” portion of Farina Alto Pizzeria & Wine Bar in Albuquerque is intended to accentuate the “Heights” where the restaurant is located. Alto, after all, translates in both Italian and in Spanish to “high” or “ high up” as in the foothills. Lesser known is the fact that “alto” also translates in Spanish to “stop.” That’s what you’ll read in Spain on octagonal red signs that in America read “stop.” So, Farina Alto not only translates to Farina at the Heights, but perhaps not intentionally to “Farina. Stop!”. Could it be the folks who named Farina Alto knew just what they were doing because stopping at Farina for lunch or dinner is a great idea?

Farina Alto is one sprawling edifice

Farina Alto is the younger, more cosmopolitan sibling of Farina Pizzeria, the East Downtown (EDO) area Italian restaurant which took the Duke City by storm when it launched in 2008 and continues to be regarded as one of the Duke City’s best and most inventive pizza restaurants. As with its elder sibling, Farina Pizzeria is owned by restaurant impresarios Pat and Terry Keene, founders and owners of the Artichoke Café, long one of Albuquerque’s most highly regarded fine dining experiences.

Situated in the edifice which previously housed the Pacific Rim Asian Bistro, Farina Alto is easily–at 6,500 square feet–three times the size of the original Farina. Its operating hours are expanded, too, with lunch and dinner served seven days a week. Unlike at its elder scion, Farina Alto’s seating isn’t in personal space proximity and a capacious patio is available for overflow crowds and diners who prefer al fresco dining. Few, if any, vestiges of the Pacific Rim remain. In the area which once served as a sushi prep area, you’ll now find a wine cave and a curing room for the high quality meats and oils used throughout the restaurant’s menu. Alas, only the chef and sous chef enter the curing room so my pleas for a tour were gently rebuffed.

Meatballs al Forno Balsamico

Farina Alto launched on Wednesday, April 24th, 2013 with an expanded menu featuring fresh, locally-grown ingredients. Aside from ingredients of the highest quality, another factor which makes it “Farina-style” is the oven which bakes the restaurant’s signature thin pies in an inferno of heat–650 to 800 degrees. By virtue of their thin crust, these twelve-inch orbs don’t require a lot of oven-time. The thin crust also means you’re likely to see more char on the pizza’s edges and bottom than you would on a thicker crust. The taste of char should be relatively innocuous, even pleasant, but it’s also an acquired taste. If you accept it, if you like it, you’ll enjoy Farina’s pies because char is a flavor.

Other restaurant standards ported over from EDO include some of the very best meatballs in town. The notion of meatballs at an Italian restaurant conjures images of baseball-sized orbs made from veal, pork and beef and deluged by red sauce. Farina’s meatballs al forno Balsamico are the antithesis of that stereotype. This oven-baked deliciousness features four pine nut studded meatballs per order immersed not in tomato sauce, but in a sweet, tangy, savory Balsamic sauce. The meatballs are accompanied by toasted crostini which you’ll use to dredge up any of the remaining sauce.

Pasta e Fagioli: (non-vegetarian) bean and pasta soup

Another EDO favorite which has moved on up to the East side is the pasta e Fagioli, a non-vegetarian bean and pasta soup. Translating simply to pasta and beans, this Italian comfort food standard is simmered until rich, flavorful and redolent with a melange of ingredients working very well together. The pasta e Fagioli is topped with ground Italian basil and served hot. It is available in cup and bowl sizes.

In his Local IQ review of Farina Pizzeria, Kevin Hopper wrote of the pizza “each pie’s individual ingredients come together to form a synergistic symphony of flavors.” Each pie is crafted in the tradition of artisan pizzaiolos who know what they’re doing in crafting pies with ingredients so complementary, they dance on all 10,000 of your taste buds with alacrity. Other pizzerias use similar ingredients (for example: pepperoni, salami, mozzarella) to less acclaim, the difference being the high quality of the ingredients used at Farina Alto.

Carne (pepperoni, salami, prosciutto, tomato sauce, mozzarella)

The carnivore’s choice for pizza is the simply named Carne which does translate to “meat” in both Italian and Spanish. A triumvirate of magnificent meats–pepperoni, salami and prosciutto–share space on a canvas of perfectly charred dough with a lightly applied tomato sauce and mozzarella. Selfishly I love when my Kim orders meaty pizzas on which pepperoni is an ingredient because she doesn’t like pepperoni. Make that she doesn’t like inferior pepperoni. She loved the pepperoni at Farina Alto which means I didn’t get much of it. The Carne is a pulchritudinous pie.

For turophiles (connoisseurs of cheese), one cheese just won’t cut it. Give us quattro formaggio (four cheeses) when you can or due (two) formaggio if the cheeses complement one another. On the Formaggio di Capra, the two cheeses-farmhouse goat cheese and mozzarella–most definitely complement one another. Other ingredients on this masterpiece are leeks, scallions and crisp pancetta (a salt-cured pork belly meat). The pancetta isn’t nearly as smoky as American bacon tends to be, lending instead an infusion of pure pork flavor. It goes especially well with the smooth, savory-tangy farmhouse goat cheese.

Formaggio di Capra (leeks, scallions, crisp pancetta, farmhouse goat cheese & mozzarella)

Farina Alto’s dessert menu is limited only in the number of options available. The deliciousness is unlimited. Among the most popular options is the gelato, an Italian frozen dessert somewhat similar to ice cream. The difference between gelato and ice cream is subtraction; gelato usually is not made with cream and usually has a much lower fat content. Although other flavor options are available, you can’t go wrong with plain vanilla and not just as a metaphor. The vanilla and the chocolate are exemplars of how good and how pure these two flavors can be, how intensely chocolatey and vanilla pure gelato can be. The gelato is served with a chocolate biscotti which is also intensely chocolatey.

It’s not likely any foodie will ever conceive of an Albuquerque tiramisu trail. There just aren’t that many trail worthy options save for Torinos @ Home, Nicky V’s Neighborhood Pizzeria, Sara’s Pastries & Deli and the Farina family. Though it’d be a short trail, it would be a delicious one. Farina Alto’s tiramisu is an excellent rendition: Savoiardi cookies soaked in espresso with marsala zabaglione. The strong espresso is perhaps why tiramisu translates to “pick me up” in Italian. This is an adult dessert, just sweet enough for interest.

Tiramisu

Great pizza at the Heights can now be found on the gentle up-slope leading to the Sandias. It’s a pizzeria and more whose very name beckons you to stop.

Farino Alto
10721 Montgomery Blvd, N.E.
Albuquerque, New Mexico
(505) 298-0035
Web Site
LATEST VISIT: 12 May 2013
# OF VISITS: 1
RATING: *
COST: $$ – $$$
BEST BET: Tiramisu, Gelato, Meatballs al Forno Balsamico, Pasta e Fagioli, Carne, Formaggio di Capra

Davido’s Pizza & More – Rio Rancho, New Mexico

Davido’s Pizza at its new Rio Rancho home

Some might call the American Realty and Petroleum Company (AMREP for short) a pioneering visionary for its early 1960s purchase of over 50,000 acres on the dusty Sandoval County plains that are now Rio Rancho. Others use different–and not necessarily as complimentary–adjectives to describe the land speculator whose clever marketing attracted hundreds of New Yorkers (among others) to the then untamed western fringes overlooking the Rio Grande.

They came because Rio Rancho was a “lucrative investment” with half acre lots going for under $800 in the 1960s. They came because Rio Rancho offered “fishing, camping, swimming and golfing in a place where the sun shone 360 days a year.” They came to live in an area which sloped “among the greenest, most fertile valleys in the world.”

The pizza oven at Davido’s

Middle income retirees from New York initially made up a significant percentage of Rio Rancho’s population, earning the community the sobriquet “Little New York.” The nickname is still bandied about even though Rio Rancho’s population is comprised of people from all over the country. In its first decade, the fledgling newcomer became the sixth largest city in New Mexico and by 1990, the census indicated the city had grown to more than 32,000 residents. It grew by almost 20,000 residents by the millennium and as of 2009, is already the third most populous city in New Mexico.

Demographically, the City of Vision has become younger, and while it still attracts retirees, its growth is primarily attributable to first-time buyers moving to Rio Rancho for the quality of life advantages it offers (even without fishing and camping). Among the most apparent vestiges of the New York lifestyle in Rio Rancho is the sheer number of high quality pizzerias, many of them which launched years after the peak migration of New Yorkers.

A slice of cheese pizza with green chile

In New York, pizza is practically a religion with nearly than 1700 restaurants in “Metropolis” containing the words “pizza” or “pizzeria” in their name. Not even in terms of per-capita can Rio Rancho boast of such pizza prominence, but it can sing the praises of highly regarded New York style pizzerias Sal-E-Boy’s Pizzeria and Venezia’s Pizzeria as well as a very popular gourmet pizza interloper, Turtle Mountain Brewing Company and Dion’s, a local chain.

Add Davido’s Pizza & More to the list of Rio Rancho pizzerias with a claim to the New York pizza heritage. The family patriarch (not named Davido) is indeed a transplanted New Yorker though it is his daughter and son-in-law who own and manage the restaurant. The restaurant opened in April, 2008. Davido’s was initially situated just about as far north as you can go in Rio Rancho before you’re on Santa Ana Pueblo. It made Placitas, Bernalillo, Santa Ana Pueblo and northern Rio Rancho happy that they no longer had to order pizza from nearby chains Pizza Hut, Little Caesar’s and Domino’s.

Slice of cheese pizza

In February, 2013, Davido’s moved to a more centrally located location in Rio Rancho. Now situated on heavily trafficked Southern Boulevard, Davido’s now occupies the space previously occupied by Dagmar’s Restaurant & Strudel Haus and prior to that Rocco’s Pizzeria. All vestiges of Dagmar’s are completely gone. In terms of ambiance, you can probably describe Davido’s as “utilitarian.” With no tables for diners to sit, it’s designed as a take-out and delivery operation. Utilitarian does not, however, mean impersonal. Davido’s remains a family-owned, family-operated restaurant run by a very nice family which appreciates your business.

The “more” in the restaurant’s name includes five different salads, sandwiches (6-, 9- or 12-inch), stromboli and calzones. The appetizer line-up features bread sticks, cheese bread sticks and wings. For dessert there is cheesecake, chocolate cake, cannoli, fruit cup and tiramisu. Pizzas come in three sizes–12-, 18- and 24-inches. Features pizzas include the Mexican (refried beans, green chili, mozzarella, Cheddar, lettuce and tomato), the Hawaiian (Canadian bacon and pineapple), the Greek (garlic sauce, spinach, mozzarella, black olive, red onion, artichoke hearts, feta), BBQ chicken, veggie and even a Pizza Bianca (no red sauce).

A Meat Stromboli from Davido’s in Rio Rancho

No pizza menu would be complete without a pizza adorned solely with cheese. Some purists will argue that the crusty canvas needs no other topping. Davido’s cheese pizza is very good. Sauce is slathered on generously, but not so much that it overwhelms the rest of the pizza. The crust is chewy and pliable; you can easily fold it over vertically the way some New Yorkers like to eat their pizzas.

A combination pizza I recommend with great enthusiasm includes green chile, black olives, sausage, white onions and garlic. Davido’s uses a garlic paste instead of minced garlic, but it’s got plenty of garlicky zest. The green chile would barely register on any piquancy scale, but it has a nice flavor. The sausage has nearly as much piquant bite as does the green chile.

Lasagna

Right out of the oven, the crust has the intoxicating, memory-triggering aroma of baked bread. The edges are thick and have plenty of air holes, but what they have most of is the flavor of bread just out of the oven. There’s relatively little black char on the bottom of the crust. It’s a good pizza Rio Rancho will love and for which Placitas pizza aficionados such as my friend Dave will drive just a bit further.

They’ll also love the Stromboli, an Italian turnover stuffed with various cheeses, vegetables and meats. Carnivores will gravitate to one called simply “Meaty” because that’s what engorges its golden sheened crust. The meats include pepperoni, salami, Italian sausage and spicy ground beef topped with melted mozzarella. Omnivores who like a lot of vegetables with their meats will enjoy the Italian Stromboli which is stuffed with finely chopped green pepper, white onion, black olive with capicola and ham.

Italian (prosciutto, capicola, salami) Sandwich

The menu also includes several pastas: spaghetti with bread (to which you can add meatballs), ravioli, fettuccini Alfredo (to which you can add grilled chicken), lasagna and baked ziti. The lasagna portion is large enough for two, not that you’d want to share. It’s layers of pasta, ground beef and melted mozzarella slathered with a rich, red sauce. The ground beef is nicely seasoned and the sauce straddles a fine line between sweet and savory. It’s a surprisingly good lasagna considering it won’t be quite as oven warm when you get it home.

Sandwiches for all weather are a popular draw. Summertime means cold sandwiches such as the Italian (prosciutto, capicola, salami) which is available in six-, nine- or twelve-inch sizes. Sandwiches are crafted with lettuce, tomatoes, provolone and your choice of mayo, mustard or Italian dressing and a bag of chips. The Italian is terrific and it starts with an excellent bread canvas. The bread is soft and chewy, more than formidable enough to hold in all the flavors. In the winter, you’ll want a hot hero: meatball, chicken parmesan, sausage parmesan, eggplant parmesan or sausage, peppers and onions. The hot heroes are available only in six-inch size.

Pizza Pinwheels (cheese, pepperoni)

Michael Gonzales, the affable owner of Cafe Bella and a classically trained chef with serious kitchen cred, is a huge fan of one of the smallest items on the Davido’s menu. That would be pizza pinwheels, an appetizer available in quantities of six or twelve. Pizza pinwheels resemble cinnamon rolls, but instead of icing, these scrumptious spirals are “iced” with tomato sauce and cheese. As with much of the Davido’s menu, what makes these special is the delicious bread on which they’re made. These soft pinwheels are absolutely addictive.

Davido’s Pizza & More has given Rio Rancho residents another New York inspired pizza restaurant to call its own.

Davido’s Pizza & More
2418 Southern Blvd
Rio Rancho, New Mexico
(505) 234-6955
Web Site

LATEST VISIT: 25 April 2013
# OF VISITS: 8
RATING: 19
COST: $ – $$
BEST BET: Cheese Pizza (by the slice), Pizza, Cannoli, Meat Stromboli, Italian Stromboli, Lasagna, Italian Sandwich, Pizza Pinwheels

Gil's Thrilling (And Filling) Blog

Follow the Culinary Ruminations of New Mexico's Sesquipedalian Sybarite. 747 Restaurant Reviews, More Than 4000 Visitor Comments…And Counting!

Category Archives: Pizza

Firenze Pizzeria – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Farina Alto – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Davido’s Pizza & More – Rio Rancho, New Mexico