{"id":260,"date":"2025-08-16T15:35:01","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T21:35:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?p=260"},"modified":"2026-04-03T19:12:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T01:12:55","slug":"dions-pizza-albuquerque-new-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?p=260","title":{"rendered":"Dion’s Pizza – Albuquerque, New Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dion’s in Rio Rancho<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Toga! Toga! Toga! Ever since the misfit Delta Tau Chi fraternity threw the most debaucherous toga party ever in the 1978 \u201cteensploitation\u201d comedy Animal House<\/strong><\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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Cheese Pizza<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You might not know it but the Dion\u2019s Pizza franchise that has become ubiquitous in the Duke City area, is actually named for that rapscallion god Dionysus (albeit a shortened version of that infamous name). Obviously when founders John Patten and Bill Scott contemplated naming options for the New York Pizza restaurant they purchased, they wanted to celebrate the wine experience they planned for their planned Greek restaurant. They certainly didn’t want to celebrate the John Belushi-like characteristics of the god Dionysus. During the transitional period between pizza restaurant and Greek restaurant, they continued to make pizzas and quickly discovered that pizza was what their customers craved.<\/p>\n

Nearly four decades later, it is still pizza which draws patrons to this amazingly popular restaurant, but pizza is far from all Dion\u2019s has to offer its loyal patrons. Nor can it be said any longer that Dion\u2019s is strictly a \u201clocal\u201d favorite. In addition to multiple locations in the Albuquerque metropolitan area (including Bernalillo, Los Lunas and Rio Rancho), Dion\u2019s can be found in Las Cruces and Santa Fe. In recent years, Dion\u2019s has expanded beyond the Land of Enchantment with restaurants in Lubbock, Texas as well as Colorado Springs and Denver, Colorado. Dion’s has become not only the most successful pizzeria in Albuquerque, it’s one of the most lucrative in the fruited plain.<\/p>\n

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The Napoli<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In its January, 2015 report Pizza Magazine Quarterly<\/em><\/a><\/strong> revealed that only four states across the fruited plain love pizza less than New Mexico does (another quality of life category for which we can be grateful for Mississippi). With only 1.55 pizza joints per 10,000 residents, the Land of Enchantment ranks 46th in terms of number of pizzerias. Worse, only 38.4 percent of those pizzerias are independent. There is one local chain regarded as one of the most successful local chains in the fruited plain. Dion\u2019s<\/a><\/strong> ranked number 37 on the magazine\u2019s list of the top fifty pizza chains in America. From a monetary perspective, however, the magazine noted that Dion\u2019s makes more money per restaurant than any other pizza chain in the country.<\/p>\n

In those 30 years plus of operation, Dion’s has established a near cult following of devoted patrons, many of them families. Dion’s is so popular that in its tenth anniversary edition, the long defunct Abq<\/em> magazine named it to its “Hall of Fame” in recognition of the restaurant garnering more “Best of” votes than anyone else in the pizza category. In its annual reader’s choice issue, readers of Albuquerque The Magazine<\/a><\/em><\/strong> (an unrelated successor to Abq<\/em> magazine) continue to lavish high praise for Dion’s, a perennial contender, if not winner, of the magazine’s “best pizza in the city” honors.<\/p>\n

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The special Special<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There’s much to like about Dion’s. The restaurant is immaculate and service is efficient and friendly. It’s staffed with energetic and smiling employees who seem to enjoy what they’re doing. There’s a viewing area from which children (of all ages) can watch the pizza-makers in action. Seating is plentiful and there’s even a drive-up window where you can pick up your call-in orders.<\/p>\n

Today Dion’s has more than two dozen locations including eleven in Albuquerque. Ever ambitious, this regional powerhouse has designs on becoming “the most admired regional restaurant brand in the country.\u201d Dion’s employs over a thousand employees, many of them teenagers. Among the secrets to Dion’s success and continued growth are fundamental rules established at the onset, rules by which each Dion’s restaurant still operate today:<\/p>\n