Years ago, during the heralded pizza wars of yore, a line was drawn between those with toppings above their cheese, and those with cheese on top.
To be honest, pizza wars didn’t really happen, but maybe they should have, because a local pizzeria honors the legacy that could have been by selling pizzas that include toppings lovingly blanketed in a layer of fresh mozzarella.
“We believe that the heat will zap the flavor out of all those toppings,” said Patricio’s Pizzeria owner Tom Sumner. “Well, if it’s covered with cheese, we believe it holds in the flavors of all those toppings.”
However that mysterious pizza method came about, it works. Patricio’s Pizzeria enjoys a rabid local following of pizza lovers who enjoy the variety of ingredients, freshness of the product, and homemade feel of the food and location. Sumner recently expanded the location to include a banquet room so the pizzeria can host larger parties.
“I took the place behind me, knocked down the wall, and now I have a banquet hall, and the wine bar [is] coming soon,” he said. “It came to the point where there were so many requests for larger parties, and when you hear that enough you want to do something about it.”
The banquet room includes several long tables, plenty of smaller party tables, and big-screen televisions flanking the room. Local artists Mikki Alhart and Jean Quintana are both currently showing paintings in the room as well. The bar area is ready but still waiting for a wine and beer license, Sumner explained.
“We are going to have 10 microbrews on tap and wine,” he said. “But now, the room is open, and we can feed back there. We already have several parties coming this weekend.”
Sumner hopes to retool the menu a bit as well, adding appetizers and more custom pizzas, but he isn’t planning to tamper too much with the formula. His customers have been coming to his location for more than 30 years. Sumner bought the Arnoldi’s Pizza location and dubbed it Patricio’s Pizzeria in 2005. Although he changed the name, he didn’t change a thing on the menu that customers had been enjoying for years.
“You can’t be around a long time if you serve low quality,” he said. “Every time you order a pizza from us, it is going to be high quality and there will be a lot of it.”
Staying dedicated to customers doesn’t just mean pleasing the regulars, but helping new customers warm up to and try a new pizza. Patricio’s enjoys a very high Yelp score, partly because Sumner tries to make sure that customers who weren’t pleased with their pizza receive a pie they’re happy with.
“I always call the person up or reach out and tell them I will take care of the problem and try my best to make it not happen again,” he said. “When you are in this business long enough and you serve as many people as we do, mistakes happen, but we never want them to happen again.”
The game is all about producing the best quality from the beloved recipe, and making sure each pie meets the level of quality Patricio’s Pizzeria is known for, no matter how many customers call or walk in, Sumner explained.
“You know, I just might have to end up adding another pizza oven, that could happen, just to keep up with that dinner rush,” he said. “We are freakin’ smokin’ on the weekends and setting records every year.”
Arts Editor Joe Payne wrote this week’s Biz Spotlight. Information should be sent to the Sun via fax, email, or mail.
This article appears in Aug 21-28, 2014.