Category: Italian

ArizonaPizzaUnited States

Bill’s Pizza – Prescott, Arizona

Gil Garduno12:02 AM

According to the city’s Chamber of Commerce, “Prescott, Arizona is a highly popular and nationally recognized retirement destination. Known as “Everybody’s Hometown,” it appeals to active adults and seniors looking for natural beauty, a relaxed lifestyle, and a strong sense of community.”  Prescott isn’t only popular among retirement-age personnel.  Many of my former colleagues at Intel Corporation in Chandler and Ocotillo (Phoenix suburbs) bought second homes in the Prescott area, not necessarily for retirement but to have an relatively nearby escape destination that is somewhat cooler than The Valley of the Sun’s triple-digit summer temperatures. Prescott was founded in 1864 to serve as the original capital of the newly established Arizona Territory. Today, it offers a unique blend of historic charm and modern convenience. While it is famous for its preserved 19th-century architecture, Western heritage, and walkable downtown—like the historic Whiskey Row and Courthouse Square—it serves as a thoroughly modern regional hub for central Arizona. Prescott is also known as “Arizona’s Christmas City.” The town, particularly the historic downtown and Courthouse Plaza, comes alive with over a million LED lights, a large gingerbread village, and a month-long celebration featuring parades, live music, and a unique New Year’s Eve event. The…

AlbuquerqueNew MexicoPizza

Tony’s Pizzeria – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Why is it so hard to convince others to change their minds and hearts? That’s a question philosophers, psychologists and even curious hoi polloi like me have pondered over for millennia. Perhaps never has that question been brought to the fore as during recent political events. Sadly, the question takes on even more of a personal bent when you believe someone else’s views betray something inherently rotten about their character—or when someone else believes the same about yours. Rightly or wrongly, we’re wired to believe people’s views are barometers of their moral conscience. Psychologists have long posited the existence of a confirmation bias which is a tendency to seek out information that confirms our existing views and to avoid information that disconfirms them.  Confirmation bias has exploded with the advent of social media.  Specific algorithms present information that appeals to our tastes.  Finding that information confirms our beliefs and rewards our dopamine receptors.  Studies have also shown that  when presented with information we don’t like or with which we disagree, our brains literally shut off and ignore it.  That accounts for the reason we as humans tend to “hang out” with people who are like us and believe the same…

AlbuquerqueGelatoItalianNew MexicoPizzaRating: N/R (Not Rated)

Johnny’s Pizza – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

“He’s been helping make pizza since he was three.”  Johnathan Khalil’s mom beamed as she confirmed she’s not the “Johnny” for which Albuquerque’s newest New York style pizzeria is named.  Johnny is her soon-to-turn-18-year-old son.  Can you imagine how cool it would be to be a teenager with a pizza parlor named for him?  Johnny must very popular.  The pizzeria named for him certainly is.  On the day of our inaugural visit–two weeks and one day–after its 29 May 2026 launch, the line was literally out the door.  Johnny’s is scantly 1,200 square-feet so accommodating throngs of diners will be a challenge.  Five two-top tables set against the walls are all the seating currently available though there is a slightly shaded (at times) patio which the Khalil family plans to expand and provide misters for. Two things were in evidence when we visited.  First, those of us who live in Rio Rancho or Albuquerque’s burgeoning northwest quadrant are jonesing for more great pizza options.  Much as we love Thicc Pizza Co., Davido’s, Dion’s, Aldo’s NY Pizzeria and the Turtle Mountain Brewing Company, we like variety and crave more options.  Coincidentally, Johnny’s launch day was just about a month after Richie…

AlbuquerqueDog FriendlyNew MexicoPizzaRating: OutstandingRio Rancho

Thicc Pizza Co. – Albuquerque & Rio Rancho, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

As you’ve read on the tagline for Gil’s Thrilling (And Filling) Blog, your humble blogger fancies himself somewhat of a sesquipedalian (a person who tends to use big words).  My logophilia (the love of vocabulary) is a lifelong affliction, both in English and in Spanish.  Despite my “affair” with words, one word-related term which just doesn’t always describe me is neologist (someone who uses new words). This is especially true about slang terms in fashion among the pop-culture-oriented youth.  When it comes to such terms, I’m not far removed from groovy, bread and copacetic.  It’s certainly not that I’m not interested in such words.  It’s just that I don’t seem to know anyone young and cool enough to use such terms (sorry BOTVOLR). Upon espying the name “Thicc Pizza Co.,” my initial inclination was “why would anyone spell “thick” so incorrectly.”  It then dawned on me that “thicc” could be one of those neologisms (a newly coined word or expression) no one in my inner circle seems to use.  A little research on the Sydney Morning Herald confirmed my suspicions: “Appearing in hip-hop circles during the early 2000s, the term “thicc” (originally “thick”) developed in African-American culture as a synonym for…

AlbuquerqueNew MexicoPizzaRating: ExcellentSandwich

Slice & Dice – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno5:37 PM

You might remember a 2004 documentary called Supersize Me in which writer-producer Morgan Spurlock explored the consequences on his health of a diet consisting solely of McDonald’s food for one month.  Spurlock has nothing on Dan Janssen who as of 2019 had eaten almost nothing but pizza for nearly thirty years.  That’s pizza for lunch and dinner every day of the year for just about three decades.  Janssen is certainly no believer in the old adage that variety is the spice of life because the only spice with which he tops his pizza is oregano.  Nor does variety extend to the type of pizza he enjoys.  Every day he usually consumes one fourteen-inch cheese pizza for lunch and another for dinner. Any dietary diversity he enjoys is through eating at different pizza restaurants–even chains, about which he declares “they’re all pretty bad, but I do frequent them. Pizza is like sex—even when it’s bad, it’s good.”  Ironically, as a teenager Janssen became a vegetarian for “ethical reasons” but determined rather quickly that he didn’t like vegetables.  A pizza diet seemed to make sense.  Just as a diet of nothing but McDonald’s food for a month wreaked havoc on Morgan Spurlock’s health,…

Bar & GrillDog FriendlyNew MexicoNew Mexico Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail: 2009PizzaRating: Very GoodRio Rancho

Turtle Mountain Brewing Company – Rio Rancho, New Mexico

Gil Garduno3:27 PM

The Tewa name “Oku Pin” which translates in English to “Turtle Mountain” has three meanings of significance to the people of Okay Owingeh, one of New Mexico’s great Tewa speaking Northern New Mexico Pueblos. “Oku Pin” was the the Indian name given to Dr. Alfonso Ortiz who obtained worldwide prominence as an anthropologist and ethnologist until his death in 1998. Ortiz was born and raised in San Juan Pueblo which in 2006 officially changed its name to Okay Owingeh. “Oku Pin” is also the Tewa name for Sandia Peak, the 10,678-feet high mountain which provides a spectacular backdrop for Albuquerque, Bernalillo and Rio Rancho. When Nico Ortiz, son of the famous anthropologist launched his inaugural restaurant and microbrewery in 1997, it just made sense that it should be called Turtle Mountain, a name which pays homage to his father and to the magnificent peaks under whose shadow his enterprise would flourish. Today, Turtle Mountain has also become synonymous with good food and (ostensibly) very good beer. Nico Ortiz has dedicated his life to the pursuit and production of good beer and has garnered tremendous recognition for his efforts, including a multi-page spread on the November, 2005 edition of New Mexico…

AlbuquerquePizzaRating: Very GoodSaladSandwich

Dion’s Pizza – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno3:35 PM

Toga! Toga! Toga! Ever since the misfit Delta Tau Chi fraternity threw the most debaucherous toga party ever in the 1978 “teensploitation” comedy Animal House, the toga party has been ingrained in the college party culture. The genesis of the toga party goes back much, much further than Animal House. Toga parties, in fact, precede collegiate life in the fruited plain by many hundred years. The first toga party was actually organized in ancient Greece in honor of the Greek god Dionysus, the deity of the grape harvest, wine-making and wine, of ritual madness, fertility, theater and religious ecstasy (that’s quite a job description, even for a god). Dionysus literally had a cult following of men and women who worshiped him. Together this vagabond group became some of history’s first true party animals, holding orgiastic celebrations where they danced to frenzied music and behaved like crazed San Diego State basketball fans. It was during this revelry that Dionysus invented both the toga party and the first drinking games. You might not know it but the Dion’s Pizza franchise that has become ubiquitous in the Duke City area, is actually named for that rapscallion god Dionysus (albeit a shortened version of…

AlbuquerqueItalianNew MexicoPizzaRating: Excellent

Luigi’s Ristorante & Pizzeria – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno7:40 AM

Luigi’s is the eponymous brainchild of Luigi Napolitano whose very last name translates to citizen of Naples, the city from which his mother Tina emigrated more than four decades ago. Tina is the bread-baking, pasta-making dynamo in the kitchen and is also responsible for many of the restaurant’s homey touches.  Tina painstakingly hand-sewed the delicate lace covering over each lamp (below) as well as the curtains over each booth.  Other homey touches include viney plants hanging from pillars throughout the restaurant and a framed picture of the Mona Lisa hanging above the buffet. Tina, a spry octogenarian, is one of the sweetest, kindest restaurateurs you could ever hope to meet.  She’s cut down the hours she works and sometimes the volume of guests prevents her from leaving the kitchen to meet them, but if she makes her way to your table, you’re in for a treat.  Tina is not only the restaurant’s best ambassador, she’s a wonderful ambassador for her homeland,  She doesn’t return to Naples as often as she’d like, but her fondest wish is that everyone has the opportunity to visit Lo Stivale.  She escorted me to a map on the wall and pointed out Naples then regaled…

AlbuquerqueDog FriendlyItalianPizzaRating: Very Good

Il Vicino – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno3:54 AM

Undoubtedly the most oft-quoted line on Robert Frost’s poem “Mending Wall” is “good fences make good neighbors.” Frost, a four-time Pulitzer Prize award winning American poet certainly didn’t have Il Vicino (“the neighbor”) in mind when he penned his prose. Fortunately fences are no obstacle to patrons of this popular contemporary Italian trattoria. A well-regarded neighborhood eatery with three Albuquerque locations, Il Vicino is probably best known for its wood-oven pizza and award-winning brewery with popular micro-brewed ales but it offers much more than that. Known in some circles for prized beers, Il Vicino has a private wine label designed to complement its menu. Victuals include salads, panini and piadine-style sandwiches and baked lasagna, too. Il Vicino has long been a fixture in Albuquerque’s Nob Hill area (3403 Central Avenue, S.E.) with a second location in the far Northeast Heights (11225 Montgomery Boulevard, N.E.). In November, 2009, a third Il Vicino was launched in the burgeoning Northwest side (10701 Coors Blvd, N.W.). You’re never too far away from Il Vicino.  Every year, Pizza Monthly, a highly respected trade publication, mails out surveys to independent pizzerias across the nation. Using their responses, they compile a “Hot 100 list” — a ranking…

ItalianNew MexicoPizzaRating: GoodRio Rancho

Aldo’s NY Pizzeria – Rio Rancho, New Mexico

Gil Garduno3:35 PM

Being within walking distance of Intel, my place of employment for eighteen years, made this old fashioned pizzeria an easy choice. Excellent pizza and a surprisingly varied menu (especially for such a small storefront) made it the right choice!  During Fab 9’s halcyon days Aldo’s, then named “Venezia,” was (along with the legendary Smokehouse) a virtual second home to Intel employees.  Aldo’s has  long been the right choice for Rio Rancho residents, many of whom have their familial roots in New York City just like Aldo’s NY Pizzeria has. Moreover, Aldo’s has deeper roots in the mother country where pizza was invented.  When it first launched as Venezia, diners may have surmised that it was named for a family with the surname Venezia.  Instead, it was named for Venice (Venezia in Italian), Italy, the fabled city on the water which the New York Times has described as “undoubtedly the most beautiful city built by man.” A framed photograph on the wall depicts a less romatic city–New York City. The photograph shares space on the walls with certificates of appreciation for the restaurant’s community involvement and sponsorship of youth activities. Although Aldo’s has a “Rio Rancho Blvd” address, you won’t see…

AlbuquerqueItalianRating: Good

Mario’s Pizza & Ristorante – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno2:25 PM

In the 1978 movie Same Time Next Year, Ellen Burstyn’s character lamented that her husband considered his years in the Army the best years of his life. When Alan Alda’s character, her partner in a 26-year adulterous affair, commiserated that many men felt that way about their time in the military, Burstyn retorted, “but he spent two years as a prisoner of war.” Only a husband who wants to sleep on the couch would admit to any source of happiness outside of marriage… and only an honest answer to the loaded question “does this dress make me look fat“ is more deleterious to any amorous prospects. When I speak fondly to my lovely bride about how much I cherished my years in Massachusetts, it’s always prefaced or followed by “I wish you had been with me.” My two years in the Bay State were the best years of my life…outside of my married years, of course. Massachusetts converted this once gangly and naive lad of 19 who grew up in bucolic Peñasco, New Mexico into a more worldly and sophisticated young man ready to conquer the world. Having been raised on a diet of northern New Mexican staples such as…