John Arena, the Las Vegas pizza eminenza, who opened his first pizzeria here 46 years ago at East Flamingo and Sandhill roads, tells a story that contrasts the traditional pizza culture of his native New York City with the collegial culture that developed in Vegas over the years.
“On the East Coast, pizza makers didn’t talk to each other,” he said the other morning following a quick tour of Metro Sliceteria, the slice shop taking shape at The Bend that will be the latest addition to his Metro Pizza family. “You could be in business across the street from each other for 50 years and never wave.
“When we moved to Las Vegas, we had to collaborate and nurture pizza culture here and be very open and very supportive. Friends from the East Coast said, ‘I can’t believe all you guys come here and cooperate.’”
In almost a dozen interviews, leading Vegas pizza professionals — from OG figures like Arena and members of the Vento family of Carmine’s Pizza Kitchen to newer standouts like Floriana Pastore of Signora Pizza truck and Erica Bell of Double Zero Pie & Pub — spoke of this community spirit and the ways it has helped turn Vegas into a top pizza city.
Or as Arena put it: “None of us is bigger than pizza — pizza is what’s important.”
A pizza community
Arena and Vincent Rotolo of Good Pie, a Detroit and grandma-style pizza whisperer, are among the founders of the Las Vegas Pizza Alliance, which connects Vegas pizza makers and promotes the city’s pizza scene. Since 2019, the Alliance has joined with Greco & Sons, a distributor of Italian specialty foods, and The Industrial Event Space to present the Las Vegas Pizza Festival. The fest is a key driver of local pizza culture.
“From a local perspective, there are pizzerias popping up left and right, and the festival highlights local pizzerias all in one place,” said Josh Abelson, owner of The Industrial Event Space. “It brings everybody together for the true love of pizza. You get to try multiple things and talk to the chefs directly. Who is the face of that slice and who is behind it and how I can support it locally?
“What’s great about Vegas is a lot of the chefs are friendly with each other and everybody is in it together and everybody wants to make each other better.”
Global gathering
If the Pizza Festival connects Vegas pizza fans with top Vegas pizza makers, the International Pizza Expo features a worldwide gathering of folks from all aspects of the pizza trade: chefs, owners, ingredient suppliers, equipment manufacturers (including robotic assistants), makers of pizza boxes, software purveyors, marketing services and, crucially, World Pizza Champions and some of the most globally celebrated pizzerias.
The expo arrived in Vegas in the early 1980s, bounced between here, Florida and New Orleans for several years thereafter, then settled permanently on Vegas in the early 1990s. The expo has endowed Vegas with international pizza credibility over its more than three decades in the city. This year, more than 550 exhibitors are scheduled to attend Tuesday through Thursday at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
“Certainly they have improved their businesses and their menus by coming to the Pizza Expo every year. It’s just a powerful event,” Bill Oakley, the expo’s group show director, said of what Vegas pizzerias have taken from the conclave.
“It used to be pepperoni, sausage, mushroom, the cheese, that was pretty much it. Now, you can have a gastronomic party on top of a pizza: any culture, any taste. It’s a hand food that spreads across cultures. That’s the thing about Las Vegas: It represents just about every style that’s out there.”
Diversity rules
That variety, in fact, is the signature pizza style of the city, rather than a historically singular style like New York, Detroit or Chicago.
“Here, and in general, pizza is in its golden age,” Arena said. “Social media and internet access expose people to different styles and pizza makers and to different ingredients and techniques. Pizza makers are now much more knowledgeable and versatile in pizza than they used to be. They find pizza to be this canvas for creativity. There’s so much room for diversity and inclusion.”
No Vegas pizzeria reflects this diversity more than Pizza Rock, the downtown restaurant from esteemed pizza maker Tony Gemignani. The menu confidently ranges across more than a dozen styles of pie, from pizza Napoletana cooked in a 900-degree Fahrenheit wood fire to thin rectangular pizza Romana, from grandma style to Sicilian to Detroit pies cooked in traditional blue steel pans.
On the other hand, consider Carmine’s Pizza Kitchen, which just marked its 50th anniversary in Vegas. Through the decades, Carmine’s (and its various incarnations) have hewed to a classic New York pie: a gently crisp crust, foldable, the sauce made using plum tomatoes imported from Italy.
“Simplicity at its finest is the best,” said Frank Vento, a son of founder Carmine Vento. “I like the basic ingredients that people smell when it’s being cooked: tomatoes, cheese, onions. I made a pickle pizza once. Was it fun to make? Yes. Is it going on the menu? No.”
Midwest and Naples
Detroit native Robby Cunningham opened Guerrilla Pizza downtown in December to showcase Detroit pies with oiled crisp bottoms, crisp-chewy cornices, cheese spread to the edges and two wide stripes of sauce, all baked in a glazed metal pan.
Chicago pies, from another Midwest city famed for its pizza, can be found in Vegas at Tony’s Pizzeria, which debuted in August in Pawn Plaza downtown. The menu leads with deep dish pies: a crust sturdy enough to support thick layers of sauce, meat and cheese, but still soft without being bready, the cornice imparting a gently crisp crunch and a flavorful char.
Settebello Pizza Napoletana, for its part, follows Neapolitan standards on ingredients, dough, cooking time and equipment to produce pies that are properly elastic, with foldable slices and roasty char spots spattering the crust.
Floriana Pastore of Signora Pizza truck also offers traditional Neapolitan pies, like a classic diavola with Italian salami, not pepperoni, as well as street food versions like a wallet pizza that’s folded and eaten like an edible wallet, and pizza fritta (fried pizza) parcels that are stuffed.
“One is shaped like a calzone, one is shaped like balloon,” Pastore, who has been a judge for a decade at the Pizza Expo, said of pizza fritta. “We do the one shaped like a calzone, filled with ricotta, salalmi, fresh mozzarella, tomato, black pepper, fresh basil. We try to give an experience that is traditionally Italian.”
Pastore praised the state of pizza in Vegas. “I really love the variety. There are so many pizzaiolos that really do a great job. In recent years, more and more women are entering the industry. I really like that.”
From wood fire to electric
Over in Chinatown, Erica Bell is pizzaiola and general manager of Double Zero Pie & Pub, named for the finely milled 00 flour used in the pizzeria’s neo-Neapolitan pies. Double Zero opened in June 2023 with a wood-fire oven (per Neapolitan practice) but later shifted to a three-deck PizzaMaster electric oven that produces sturdier pies.
“It was a controversial change. People love the romance of wood fire. Moving to electric allowed us to do takeout. People, especially young people, order everything for delivery,” Bell said.
“When we changed from wood fire to electric, it enhanced our dough a little. Because we are neo-Neapolitan, we believe in having a stiffer, crunchier undercarriage. True Neapolitan is softer and floppier.”
Bell and her team are developing a New York-style pizza, to join with Double Zero’s neo-Neapolitan pies and its pizza tonda Romana, the Roman-style pizza with a thin, crisp crust.
“You have to be innovating and pushing all the time now. Vegas is 100 percent a humongous pizza scene, and it’s so inspiring to see what people are doing,” Bell said. “I think it’s one of the top three pizza scenes in the U.S.”
By the slice
Those Guys Pies, founded almost 15 years ago, has three locations in the valley, the most recent launching in December on West Desert Inn Road.
“This is the most thought-out one we’ve done. It was designed with intent. This is what we want to replicate as we rebrand the other stores or open new locations,” said Chris Builder, an owner of Those Guys Pies. “The slice program is what we’re focusing on now.”
Those slices are New York-style, with a higher hydration dough that yields a lighter pliable crust with a crisp chew.
A White Widow slice from a round pie convenes white sauce (ricotta, fresh and aged mozzarella), roasted mushrooms, caramelized onions, black garlic balsamic reduction and grated Parmesan. A square Meatball Parm slice calls on marinara, sliced housemade meatloaf, fresh mozzarella and Parmesan. Those Guys Pies also does whole pizzas, like a Big Sexy with shaved housemade sausage, cup-and-char pepperoni, onion, garlic and pepperoncini.
Slices are also essential at Evel Pie, the East Fremont Street spot with an Evel Knievel theme. The slice program encompasses everything from basics like a Cheesy Rider mozzarella to a buffalo spin on chicken pizza to gonzo renditions like a Hog Heaven with Evel’s barbecue sauce, pulled pork, man candy bacon, smoked mozzarella and red onion.
“We primarily sell by the slice, turning and burning all night,” Evel Pie chef Richard Verhagen said. “At night, Fremont can be fun and raucous, and we like to give back as good as we get. I’d like to see more slice shops in Vegas. John Arena is going to crush it.”
Respectful of ingredients
In 1980, when Arena opened his first Vegas pizzeria, it was a slice shop during the day, he said, so the launch soon of Metro Sliceteria represents coming full circle in a way. It also reflects an ongoing development in the pizza business.
“The trend has gone to high quality slice shops that you will make a special trip for. That is really the idea behind Sliceteria — that it’s so high quality, you will drive here for it.”
Whether by the slice or whole pie, Arena said he wasn’t a pizza purist.
“I can’t think of anything that’s off limits other than low quality. But I’m also not a fan of mindless — whatever is in the kitchen, you put it on the pizza. The pizza maker has to be mindful and respectful of the ingredients. In the wrong hands, it goes horribly wrong, but in the right hands, it can go fantastically right.”
Contact Johnathan L. Wright at [email protected]. Follow @JLWTaste on Instagram.