The story of “Little Italy East,” slated to open around the beginning of June at 6300 Poplar Avenue, Suite 113, began in Italy.
Two of the owners of the new location are from Italy. Giovanni Caravello is from Sicily and Riccardo Marciano is from Calabria.
They met their wives — owners Brooke Caravello and former Memphian Molly Marciano — in New York.
Giovanni’s mom did the cooking when he was growing up. He worked at the family restaurant after his family moved to New York.
He met Brooke, who was majoring in psychology at Queens College, when they were both working at a New York pizzeria. “I was a pizza maker there,” he says. “She was a waitress.”
They moved to Memphis in 2013 and got married the next year. “I had some family down here,” Brooke says.
Giovanni began working as a dishwasher at the Little Italy at 1495 Union Avenue. “Before we moved to Memphis we were looking at jobs around here. Little Italy was hiring, so I applied. And they hired me.”
He worked his way up. Little Italy’s owner Bill Giannini, who was commuting from Nashville, decided to sell it. “We bought it from him in 2014,” Giovanni says.
And, he adds, “We changed all the recipes, too.”
“Most of the ingredients they were using was frozen, processed, and pre-packaged,” Brooke says. “The biggest change was everything we used was fresh produce.”
And, she says, “The sauces are all made from fresh ingredients. High quality. Everything is made in-house daily. The pasta dishes are made to order.”
In 2016, they opened the Little Italy at 7717 US-70 in Bartlett. “I ran that one,” Brooke says. “And Giovanni ran Midtown.”
They sold the Bartlett restaurant to Giovanni’s cousin in 2018. “He purchased it outright, but it’s still Little Italy,” Giovanni says. “Same recipes.”
Giovanni and Brooke did the same thing with their old Downtown location at 106 GE Patterson Avenue. They bought it in 2019 and sold it in 2020. But, he says, “It’s still Little Italy.”
The new location in East Memphis will be their “first partnership going into it,” Giovanni says.
As for that partnership, he says, “I met Riccardo. He just came into the restaurant, Little Italy in Midtown, with a few friends. We started talking. And down the road we became friends.”
“Just finding another native Italian in Memphis is pretty unique,” Brooke says. “And they immediately bonded.”
And Molly “being an American wife married to an Italian” was “super unique,” she adds. “They became like family pretty quickly.”
Riccardo told Giovanni he always wanted to open a restaurant. “East Memphis came up and we had the opportunity to open one together.”
“I knew how to cook Italian food,” Riccardo says. He used to help his grandmother make her “Sunday homemade sauce,” he says. “Every Sunday was a feast in my house. A lot of my family and friends.”
Molly met Riccardo “on a blind date in New York,” she says. “We met outside of an Italian restaurant.”
They moved to Memphis in 2018. Riccardo always felt Memphis is “more like Italy. The hospitality. The Southern mentality is like Southern Italy.”
The Little Italy in East Memphis will be similar to the Midtown Little Italy, which the Caravellos still own and operate.“The base menu is the same,” Giovanni says. “Also, the recipes are going to be the same. There will be a couple of different pasta dishes. More Italian inspired.”
They also will serve paninis and New York-style pizzas.
They’ll serve Grandma’s Pizza, which uses “the same mozzarella cheese and fresh garlic and fresh basil.”
It’s one of their most popular pizzas on Union Avenue. “It’s the love that we put in it,” Brooke says. “The Italian love.”
The Little Italy “East” is their last Little Italy for now, Giovanni says. “None in the near future. We want to see how this goes first. And then we can plan some other locations.”
They’re always open to new ideas “as long as we can maintain the quality and level of service and everything that I think the community has grown to appreciate,” Brooke says.
“I’m so thrilled,” Riccardo says. “Real excited. Nervous. And overwhelming. Because my life will change a lot when I open that door.”
If you love Little Italy on Union Avenue, you’re going to love Little Italy at Poplar Avenue and Massey Road.
The restaurant, which is slated to open in late May, will be at 6300 Poplar Avenue, Suite 113.
The owners refer to it as “Little Italy East,” says Molly McDonald Marciano, who, along with her husband, Riccardo Marciano, and Giovanni and Brooke Caravello, are the restaurant owners.
The Caravellos are the owners of the Union Avenue Little Italy location. Giovanni, who is from Sicily, and Riccardo, who is from Calabria, met in Memphis, says Molly, who is from here. “They met through an Italian group here.”
According to Brooke, all the Little Italy restaurants are under the Little Italy franchise umbrella, but the Bartlett and Downtown locations are independently owned and operated. They might have slight differences, but they maintain the same core menu and the same standard of fresh homemade ingredients, she says.
The new restaurant is “being run and owned by two guys that moved to the United States 15 years ago who couldn’t speak a word of English and, by way of New York, both got married and, for different reasons, moved to Memphis,” Molly says.
“One thing they both love about the South vs. New York is the idea of Southern hospitality that rings through in Italy. As far South as you go in Italy, the warmer the hospitality becomes.”
The new Little Italy menu will be “for the most part” like the Little Italy on Union Avenue, Molly says. “We’re definitely adding and taking away a few things.”
And, she says, there will be “some really good tweaks.”
For instance, Riccardo will make a Calabrian-style panino and Giovanni will make a Sicilian-style panino.
They’ll serve “New York-style pizza with a little flair.”
And they’ll offer a Nutella Pizza.
Pasta dishes, which are not on the menu at the Union Avenue location, include dishes with carbonara and amatriciana sauces.
They’ll serve beer, but they’ll also serve wine, which is something that’s not available at the Union Avenue location, Molly says.
Like Little Italy on Union, the east location will be a pick-up-and-go spot, but they also will have about 40 seats, Molly says.
They will string patio lights across the top of the restaurant to help give it an “Italian piazza-type feel,” Molly says. They want Little Italy to be a “warm place to come and eat comfort food.”
She knows Giovanni will be playing “all the soccer games” on TV. So, it will be a “very family-friendly environment. But also a fun place for me to go with girlfriends and have a glass of wine.”
When the moon hits your eye, like a big pizza pie, that’s amore. It’s true that a good pizza, fresh out the oven, is akin to that warm, fuzzy feeling of love, but there’s no need to take one to the face to enjoy Italy’s culinary magnum opus. Memphis has long been cultivating its approach to the pizza game, with restaurants showing off their take on New York-style, to Chicago-style, to Bluff City-style (we’re always down for a barbecue chicken pizza).
For our 2023 pizza issue, we sent our intrepid reporters across the city to try out 10 different pizza joints. Their conclusion? Any way you slice it, Memphis’ pizza game is going strong.
Slim & Husky’s – P.R.E.A.M.
If you often think to yourself that “Pizza Rules Everything Around Me,” then you’re ready for Slim & Husky’s P.R.E.A.M.
The artisanal pie’s highlight is a splendid white sauce along with the S+H cheese blend on top of a perfectly prepared and crunchy thin crust. It’s festooned with spinach, pepperoni, pulled Italian sausage, mushrooms, and red onions.
As the onion bits were sparse and the mushrooms merely present, it was up to the other elements to carry the day. The sausage was particularly good, with a distinctive flavor, and the spinach and pepperoni rounded out the appeal of the dish.
The elongated pie is cut into squarish shapes and invites the hungry diner to dig in. If you eat inside, the atmosphere is welcoming, with soul music in the air and delightful artwork of luminaries such as Aretha Franklin and Isaac Hayes on the walls.
The staff is friendly and helpful, and it’s clear a lot of thought has gone into making dishes that go far beyond the standard offerings of the big chains. Nashville-based Slim & Husky’s is also a chain, but you’ll feel right at home chowing down on a well-made pizza. — Jon W. Sparks
Remember the pizza they served in elementary school? It was square because it baked on the cookie sheets the school kitchen already had. It was not great (or even good) by normal pizza standards, but it was the pinnacle of school kitchen culinary creation. Maybe, if you’re lucky, your grandma tried to recreate that magic at home with a scratch-made crust and an assist from Chef Boyardee.
Imagine that pizza made by a real pizzeria. That’s the Grandma’s Pizza at Little Italy.
“It’s a New York thing,” says owner Giovanni Caravello. “Somebody’s grandma used to make it like that. It’s a lot more popular up there than it is down here. If you tell people from the North it’s a Grandma’s pizza, they know what it is.”
On the menu, it’s listed as thin crust, but in practice, the Grandma rises a bit more than the standard thin crust. It comes basic with fresh mozzarella patches and exposed sauce, but it’s substantial enough to load on the toppings, if that’s what you’re into.
Another good thing: It has more crust (thanks, geometry!). And if you ask for it to be cut in smaller pieces, it can be good finger food for a party.
Little Italy opened in Midtown in 2004 and recently expanded Downtown. And a third location is expected to open in early April to spread Grandma’s comfort to East Memphis. — Chris McCoy
When I first glanced at the menu at Slice of Soul Pizza Lounge, located at 1299 Madison Avenue, an instant feeling of FOMO fell upon me. I was bitten by the “New Year, New Me” bug, and this trickled down to my eating choices. There were so many appetizing options, with Memphis-themed names, such as the “Pyramid Parmesan Chicken” and the signature Bellevue loaded potato, that made my decision to settle for the vegetable pizza even harder. However, as I took a bite of the seven-inch Al B. Green slice, I realized I was far from settling.
According to Anthony Latiker, the owner of Slice of Soul, the Al B. Green is one of the most popular options, and it’s no surprise. Latiker explained that it can be hard to describe the style of their pizza, as it’s simply their own take on a classic food item.
The slice consisted of “obese deliciousness of spinach, black olives, green olives, mushrooms, onions, roasted red peppers, green bell peppers, and banana peppers.” Not only did this huge portion provide me with a filling dinner, but the presentation provided an aesthetic worthy of the “phone eats first narrative.” — Kailynn Johnson
In 2018, at my first visit to Dino’s Grill, I fell in love, not with my date sat across from me for my freshman year sorority formal — the one who didn’t know how to properly punctuate contractions and who didn’t take kindly to constructive criticism. Oh no, I fell in love with the plate of spaghetti with marinara before me. And while my standards for choosing a formal date were low, my standards for spaghetti with marinara have always been high. And let’s just say Dino’s is now my new standard. It’s my favorite thing in all of Memphis. Seriously.
And so as my deadline for this pizza issue loomed ahead of me, I dreaded ordering anything but spaghetti at Dino’s. How could I betray my love? And yet I did. For the sake of journalism. I ordered a cheese pizza. And hot damn, have I been missing out! The pizza comes with Dino’s signature marinara, the marinara I already love, and the pizza crust is thin just like my grandpa would’ve made it. How could I not love it? It’s simply delicious, and I had to withhold myself from eating all eight slices. Now, I fear that the next time I go to Dino’s, instead of immediately ordering my go-to pasta, I’ll have to make a decision between pasta and pizza. Lord, help me. — Abigail Morici
Tamboli’s Cacio e Pepe is an extraordinary and unusual pizza — and well worth a trip to the funky and delightful mother-ship restaurant on Madison Avenue.
Cacio e Pepe is built on the premise that a pizza with courage and ambition can forge its own path, forgoing such conventional building blocks as red sauce, tomatoes, meat, or, you know, vegetables and stuff. This is a pizza with heart — and lots of chewy and spicy goodness that will win you over.
This is a pizza that begins its climb to greatness with a whipped ricotta cheese base which is topped by a thick, gooey layer of mozzarella, some edgy pecorino Romano, freshly cracked black pepper, and the piece de resistance — white truffle oil. Get back, y’all!
Let’s be real, here: This is basically a mixed-cheese dance party that’s oven-baked and wood-fired on top of Tamboli’s wonderful house-made dough. The pepper and truffle oil merely serve to elevate it to bliss level.
Pro Tip: Cacio e Pepe pairs beautifully with Tamboli’s Caesar Salad, which also features Pecorino Romano, plus toasted pine nuts with house-made dressing. — Bruce VanWyngarden
Tamboli’s Pasta & Pizza, 1761 Madison Ave., tambolis.com
Memphis Pizza Café – Buffalo Chicken Pizza
Memphis Pizza Café has built its reputation on being one of the few pizza places that has mastered perfectly crispy and thin crust. But achieving that perfect crust harmony isn’t the only thing Memphis Pizza Café is famous for. What elevates this pizza joint is the balance of unique flavors found in every variation of pizza. Whether this is through their traditional subs, calzones, or cheese sticks filling bellies during happy hour (Monday-Friday, 4-6 p.m.), there is not one place where flavor is lost. And one of the most popular flavors is their Buffalo Chicken Pizza.
Taking a bite of their Buffalo Chicken Pizza will have diners begging for more. The secret of these flavors can be found in their marinated chicken tossed with mozzarella and cheddar on an olive oil-based pizza served with Frank’s special sauce and ranch dressing. While the contents of Frank’s sauce might not be known to us yet, our hunger for more will soon reveal the truth. — Izzy Wollfarth
Walking into Boscos on Overton Square, I feel a bit of nostalgia. Not only were they the first brew pub in Tennessee when they opened their Germantown location in 1992, they had the first wood-fired oven in the city. Pizza and beer are a sublime combination, and Boscos perfected both a long time ago. More than 30 years later, how well I remember the first wood-fired pizza I had there: It was a revelation.
I’m happy to report that Boscos hasn’t lost their touch. The only difference is that now you can see your pie being made at the pizza bar. Ordering a Palermo, I settle in to watch Chef Ashley roll out the crust, trim the edges, and apply the sauce, cheese, and other toppings. Then she slides it into the roaring heat of the wood-fired oven behind her. What emerges is transformed. The hard wheat crust rises ever so slightly, taking on an airy crunch, while the sauce tastes as fresh as farmers market tomatoes. The pepperoni and sausage crisp up nicely, but it’s the succulent portobello mushrooms that really make this pizza. Add a pint of Boscos’ own Famous Flaming Stone steinbier, and there you have it: a classic pairing done right, withstanding the test of time. — Alex Greene
I invited singer-songwriters Dylan Dunn and Ava Carrington to try a deep-dish pizza from Izzy & Adams.
Only one slice of the 14-inch Chicago Dude pizza was left when we finished. Dunn took that slice with him in a to-go box to a band rehearsal. The pizza, obviously, was a hit. “It’s the best pizza I’ve ever eaten,” he says.
Carrington, who doesn’t like pizza, loved the Izzy & Adam’s pizza we tried. The Chicago Dude, which includes pepperoni, onion, garlic, and giardiniera pepper mix, is so mouth-wateringly delicious. It’s dense, thick, and so full of flavor. It’s one of six speciality pizzas from Izzy & Adam’s.
Owner Ryan Long, who named the restaurant after his sons Isaac and Adam, describes the two-inch-or-so deep-dish pizza as a “cheese lover’s pizza.”
As Long told me in an earlier interview, “There’s a lot of cheese on it. It’s kind of a different pizza. There’s more filling. And it’s just unique to Chicago because it was invented there.”
With deep dish, “you put ingredients on the bottom, then the cheese, and the sauce goes on top of it all. And it’s garnished with Romano cheese and Parmesan.”
They use raw Italian sausage on their deep dish, as well as their thin-crust pizzas, Long told me. “We put on quarter-size pieces and it cooks in the oven. The grease from that pork gets released into the sauce. That’s what makes it damn good.”
Long knows whereof he speaks. He grew up in Rolling Meadows in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago. — Michael Donahue
Izzy & Adam’s, 6343 Summer Ave., Suite 110
Silly Goose – Farm Daddy
So many bars turned to pizza as their solution to the Covid-induced financial and operating woes. I was surprised as anyone several years ago when I discovered that Downtown’s Silly Goose — a bar/lounge where I’d before unwittingly stumbled into a sleazy-esque late-night poker tournament and had several shots bought for us by a blackout patron dressed as Woody from Toy Story — had reemerged as a gourmet pizza destination. (Don’t worry, it’s still a late-night hot spot.)
I posted up at the bar and ordered a Farm Daddy, which brought the farm-fresh tastes directly to my seat with a bevy of ingredients: scallions, mushrooms, smoked bacon, wood-fire baked chicken, mozzarella, and Parmesan tossed in a house-made roasted garlic cream sauce. Silly Goose’s pizzas are the perfect bar snack, enough heft to stave off that impending hangover, but just light enough to avoid feeling stuffed while downing beers at the bar.
As a bonus, it turned out I’d stumbled into Silly Goose during its Thursday “2 for $20” pizza deal, so I also snagged The Roni, their take on a classic pepperoni pizza with Grana Padano, mozzarella, and marinara sauce. All in all, it was a pretty good deal, and I think these pizzas make for a perfect late-night snack. And it’s easy to enjoy them in Silly Goose’s lounge area, combining the ski lodge aesthetic of rustic stacked log pillars with an airy walled garden vibe from a colorful sea of hanging wisterias. — Samuel X. Cicci
Pizza and beer make for an iconic duo. And the crossover between two big names in Memphis’ hospitality scene made that combination even more enticing when Wiseacre’s Kellan and Davin Bartosch teamed up with Andy Ticer and Michael Hudman.
Little Bettie’s Pizza and Snacks, open at Downtown’s Wiseacre HQ, focuses on New Haven-style pizzas: thin-crust, wood fired pies with a bit of char and a chewier texture, almost made in a similar vein to classic Neapolitan pizzas. There are plenty of interesting choices to pick, but one pizza reigns supreme above all: the Thud Butt.
I haven’t quite found another pie around town like the Thud Butt. Whisking together both sweet and savory tones, the pizza blends the silkiness and rich, fatty taste of mortadella drizzled with black pepper honey and a pistachio stracciatella, with a heaping dollop of homemade cheesy mayo in the center for good measure. That’s a whole lot of different flavors combined together in a pretty innovative way.
But if, like me, you’re allergic to pistachios, fret not! Every pizza is a good pizza at Little Bettie’s, with the added perk of being able to enjoy a slice alongside Wiseacre’s top-notch brews. Now that’s amore. — SXC
Little Bettie’s Pizza & Snacks, 398 S. B.B. King Blvd., wiseacrebrew.com
Wooooo boy, ain’t we in the throes of it now? Feels like it was just last week when my assignment was simply to go to a bar and let y’all know that service is good and drinks are delicious. Well, shit’s changed, and frankly, it’s our duty to change with it. So let’s go to a bar, virtual-style.
I’ve not been able to go to an actual bar (because quarantine is the responsible thing to do, son!), so I’ve explored many options, including delivery, curbside service, and controlled irresponsibility, which is a thing you do with Clorox wipes, growlers, and general intelligence.
Unless you have written it off because your best friend from high school is an anti-vaxxer or your in-laws are trying to friend you, Facebook has been an astoundingly solid resource for restaurants and bars doing some cool stuff. Most any restaurant that you call is willing to make you drinks to-go, offer wines at a discount, or at least try to offload their selection of beer. They mostly let their deals be known on Facebook, so ignore the friend request from your mother-in-law and check out a menu.
“I don’t have the Facebook!” Neat. You can still navigate to the page and see their specials, you catastrophic moron.
Buster’s Liquors & Wines is doing curbside pick-up from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Place an order by 5:30 p.m. and patiently wait outside, and they’ll bring it to you. This is a great option if you haven’t begun drinking yet but plan to before the sun goes down. Shake up some local vodka and a squeeze from a lime you got from the Blue Monkey walk-in cooler. Log into Google Hangouts and play Jackbox with friends.
Photographs by Justin Fox Burks
Wiseacre Brewing Co. is doing delivery. I recommend ordering a couple six-packs of Ananda between 1 and 6 p.m., tipping the person who drops it off, and pressure-washing your driveway with your roommates. If there’s any left over, wipe it down real nice with some industrial wipes you got from Highbar Trading and offer it to the gentleman walking his dog down the street. Afterward, settle down on the couch and have a Zoom conference with all your friends that don’t have a pressure washer. Rub it in their faces.
Justin Fox Burks
Drinking local with hurricanes in pouches from Bayou Bar & Grill.
It sure is nice outside! Use the weather to your advantage and walk to your neighborhood watering hole. Mine is Bayou Bar & Grill, which is doing take-out from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. Things you can get include incredibly cheap growler fill-ups (especially if you’re in their Mug Club) and drinks in pouches. Because it’s spring break, I opted for a couple hurricanes in pouches and a growler of a local IPA, which I then drank in my front yard as I yelled about the nuances of flight patterns during a pandemic.
Not to be outdone, Slider Inn is doing car bombs to-go, which include a pouch of Guinness and a ramekin of Jameson and Irish cream liqueur. This is great if you want to find out what it’s like to drop a plastic ramekin into a plastic pouch and drink it as fast as you can while watching 30 Rock for the millionth time and playing Hearts on the computer with the people living with you. You get extra points if you then order curbside delivery of a locally owned restaurant and tip outlandishly. My selections the past few days? Bari, Tamboli’s, Huey’s, Young Avenue Deli, Restaurant Iris, Casablanca, and Little Italy.
You know the best part about being asked to stay at home and stop the spread of a lethal virus? First off, it’s responsible at-home consumption of booze acquired from local restaurants, but the second-best thing is camaraderie. No, I’m not advising having a damn parade with children and spit-covered instruments marching through a neighborhood (get your shit together, Central Gardens!). I’m talking about all of us being in this together. And together, we can support our local establishments and, of course, safely consume booze off-premises and in the comfort of our meticulously clean living rooms and/or porches, or really anywhere you can pour a tall one. Cheers to staying safe, everyone.
“We needed refreshing,” says Ben McLean of Old Venice Pizza Company on Perkins Ext. in East Memphis. On November 19th, Venice Kitchen was unveiled.
McLean says that Venice Kitchen is a whole new concept, that they are expanding beyond their Italian roots and embracing their Creole and Mediterranean sides. The 20 pizzas that were offered at one time have been narrowed down to 11. One new pizza is the Hog Wild, with pork tenderloin, barbecue sauce, gouda, and pepperoni. While the World Famous Lasagna and the Rasta Pasta (with Caribbean jerk sauce) remain, Shrimp & Grits has been added, as has a veggie zoodles dish with squash and zucchini noodles with pesto, cherry tomato, almond slices, and grana padano.
Photographs by Justin Fox Burks
Among the new salads are a grilled shrimp panzanella and steak & cabbage. New on the sandwich menu are the VK Burger with bacon, Fontina, and roasted garlic aioli, and crispy chicken with a spicy slaw.
Shrimp & grits; meatballs
Heading up the kitchen is Rob Ray, who worked with McLean at Belly Acres and at McEwen’s in Oxford. He is described as progressive and an innovator. Ray emphasizes high quality and fresh ingredients. “We are broader than just pizza and pasta,” he says, noting that the new grill is for cooking steaks and salmon.
David Buescher, who is partnering with McLean on this project, agrees it was time for a change when it comes to Old Venice. He says with the opening of Novel and other developments nearby, the timing is perfect for such a restaurant.
Both McLean and Buescher emphasize that they’ve ditched the “old” of Old Venice.
“We’ve really enjoyed the opportunity to take a Memphis staple and put our twist on it, give it life for the next 10 to 15 years,” says McLean.
The third Little Italy will open in South Main Downtown sometime in December, according to owner Giovanni Caravello. It will be in the old Scoops site at 106 GE Patterson.
“It was a good opportunity,” says Caravello, noting the coming movie theater and hotel. “In that part of Downtown, there’s not really authentic pizza.”
By authentic, Caravello means New York-style, which is what he specializes in. He says what makes their pizza so good is their high quality ingredients — the best cheeses and finest flour. His lasagna, he swears, is “like my mom made it.”
Caravello says that the menu for the Downtown restaurant will be smaller. He’s thinking of offering fresh mussels with marinara sauce, imported cold cuts, and a cheese platter.
There will be seating for 35 to 40 inside, with an additional 20 to 25 seats outdoors. Caravello hopes to host games outside.
Ultimately, he’s feeling pretty confident about this latest venture.
“We’ve been in business 15 years,” he says. “People know what we can do.”
The Nine, in the old Bangkok Alley space at 121 Union Downtown, opened November 1st. Owner Chalee Timrattana says the Burana family, Bangkok Alley owners, helped him by providing the space free of charge and have been supportive.
Timrattana worked for Bangkok Alley for 16 years and has served as kitchen manager for all the locations.
The nine of the Nine refers to the king of Thailand, who recently passed away. Timrattana is using it as a lucky number.
Construction and the upgrade took longer than expected. The inside looks much like it did before, with a bar at front with some seating and banquet seating along the walls in the back.
Also similar is the menu, with such favorites as Pad Thai and Drunken Noodle.
Timrattana says he doesn’t have a specialty. “I can do it all good,” he says.