Tucked away towards the back of a nondescript strip center near Memorial City Mall, Reginelli’s Pizzeria, just open since last month, is easy to overlook. In fact, when you step into the restaurant, with its bright red accents and glossy laminated prints of snazzy Italian scooters on the wall, you might write it off as just another chain restaurant. Doing so would be hasty.
When this successful New Orleans-based pizzeria with nine locations in Louisiana set its sights on Houston, the owners partnered up with Alex Brennan-Martin (of Brennan’s fame). And the rest, as they say, is in the details.
Details like the fact that partner and co-owner Bruce Erhardt has been flying between cities each week, spending the bulk of his time in Houston to ensure that things are running smoothly at his first Texas outpost. He brought a team with him from New Orleans to help with the soft opening – John Lee, the general manager, and our vivacious young server are both Reginelli’s veterans with solid experience from the New Orleans locations.
The true litmus test, however, was the food, which definitely impressed. It started with a simple salad of asparagus and avocado. On sight, it looked like a simple green salad, but the honey Dijon vinaigrette was so delicious, I scraped up every last green leaf on the plate.
For an appetizer, the cheesy artichoke and spinach dip, topped with melted mozzarella and served with thick rectangles of a fluffy toasted focaccia bread, was hot and gooey and creamy like a fondue – not the most healthful of choices but worth the calories for the enjoyment it brought to our table.
The pizza was the true focal point of the meal, however. Our party of four ordered two large, 14-inch pizzas with split toppings on each, allowing us to effectively sample four pizzas at once.
Of the four, which included the Nor’ Easter, the Saltimbocca, Tony’s Play and the Smokin’ Chicken, my favorite was the Nor’ Easter, closely followed by Tony’s Play and the Saltimbocca. Our table took individual votes, and it was just a matter of preference in terms of who liked what. We liked them all, just some more than others.
For me, the Nor’ Easter stood out because of the remarkable flavor of the pizza sauce, made from a puree of roasted red peppers and roasted tomatoes. On first bite, my taste buds practically danced as they detected rich, smoky, slightly sweet red pepper and tangy tomato. Combined with caramelized onions, nuggets of Italian sausage made by a New Orleans-based Italian sausage house and a smattering of green peppers and capers, it was a clear winner for me – the one that I haven’t stopped talking about.
I could talk about the delightful white Saltimbocca pizza, refreshing because it’s finished off with a squeeze of lemon for seasoning, but you’re probably wondering about the crust at this point. The crust is, after all, the true measure of pizza craftsmanship.
The crust was the not the trendy, thin-crust, wood-fired oven pizza everyone’s trying to do around the city. It was kind of fluffy – the edges crispy, yet chewy. The crust truly made the pizza; it took the edges from being an unwanted scrap you’d typically leave on the plate to something I wanted to nibble on. It was one of those types of crusts that could easily be reheated in the oven the next day, and still come out perfect.
And in the end, that’s what Reginelli’s is about. It’s about quality pizza with fresh ingredients that makes it a place you can go with your family or friends, where the prices are reasonable enough that you can go to town with the ordering, intent on having enough leftover for a pizza breakfast the next morning, and still not break the bank. It’s the neighborhood place where you order a quick to-go meal for your family and know that it’s going to be a good one.
That’s why, in spite of its hidden location on a side street with little street visibility, I have a hunch this is just going to be the first of many Reginelli’s in Houston.
REGINELLI’S, 12389 Kingsride Lane at Frostwood, 713-468-2727, reginellis.com