Texas concept lights fire under Neapolitan pizza
Already have an account?
Nation’s Restaurant News’ Breakout Brands report, now in its sixth year, showcases emerging restaurant chains ready to go to the next level. Meet all of this year’s brands >>
Cane Rosso has taken diners’ love affair with Neapolitan pizza and run with it.
The Dallas-based chain debuted in 2009 and has grown from a mobile wood-burning oven on a trailer to nine units in four Texas cities.
With five Cane Rosso restaurants in the Dallas area, two in Houston and one each in Austin and Fort Worth, owner Jay Jerrier has spring-boarded growth with a wry wit on social media and a feature on the Food Network program “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives,” a year after the first brick-and-mortar unit opened in 2011.
“In late 2008, I bought a mobile wood-burning oven on a trailer with the idea that I would cook pizzas for my daughters’ fall school carnival,” Jerrier said. “That was the first time making pizza in public, and they were awful … but everyone really seemed to enjoy them.”
Jerrier said the oven sat idle in his driveway for five months until his wife asked: “Aren’t you ever going to do anything with that thing?”
He began doing pop-up pizza service from the truck on evenings and weekends at local establishments, and it led to the first restaurant in Dallas’ Deep Ellum district.
“We’ve always aspired to be more than ‘just a pizzeria,’” Jerrier said. “The inspiration for Cane Rosso was a restaurant called A16 in San Francisco. I was blown away when I ate there. They had amazing wood-fired pizza at the core of their restaurant…but the rest of the non-pizza menu was equally compelling.”
Contact Ron Ruggless at [email protected]
Follow him on Twitter: @RonRuggless
You May Also Like
