Pizzicata Pizzeria Ristorante in Carefree's Spanish Village was certified as the first official pinsa restaurant in Arizona by the Authentic Roman Pinsa Association in March. The husband and wife chef-owners, Federico Venturini and Viola Tagliaferri moved to America in 2018. By September 2019, they opened Pizzicata in Carefree. And in 2020, they op...

Dolce Vita — a family-owned and operated Italian restaurant, gelato shop and grocer at 5251 E. Brown Road No. 104 in Mesa — is hosting a special Sicilian night dinner 4-8 p.m. Friday, April 28. The business has been serving authentic Italian food using only fresh and local ingredients without additives for more than 12 years. Dolce Vita has also pr...

Tomaso's has long been an Italian cuisine institution in Phoenix, the first of what would become a family-run Italian restaurant empire. But after 46 years, the Maggiore family announced they are ready to close the chapter. The restaurant was opened by Tomaso and Patricia Maggiore in 1977 and their children went on to open their own restaurants aro...

Serving up modern Italian cuisine, Spiga Cucina Italiana is designed to give you that Tuscan Trattoria feel. Operated by a husband and wife, Spiga focuses on Italian food with a Mediterranean flavor profile. They serve a lot of seafood and pasta dishes, also they have an extensive wine list with close to thousand bottles in house. The atmosphere is...

Crust Simply Italian is set to open its fourth location this fall in downtown Mesa. The new location will be part of Mesa's The Grid, a new commercial and residential development in a previously underutilized parking structure. Crust owner Michael Merendino, a first-generation Italian American, grew up watching his father make pizzas in Long Island...

A serial restaurateur, Joey Maggiore is embarking on his most personal venture yet: The Sicilian Butcher. A tribute to his late father, the restaurant celebrates his Italian heritage and the foods he would cook for Maggiore as a child. “He gave his life for Italian food and culture,” Maggiore said of his father. In every location of The Sicilian Bu...

Crust Simply Italian is expanding with a location in a new downtown Mesa apartment complex coming in the fall. The restaurant is an East Coast Italian food and drink concept and will be located in the complex called The GRID, located off Main Street and Mesa Drive. “The GRID will offer a unique blend of opportunities for residents and retailers,” P...

Phoenix has always loved Italian food. In fact, 40 years ago, Italian restaurants — along with steakhouses — dominated the Valley’s food scene. These days, our dining options in every genre are blessedly more varied, and that includes Italian restaurants, where diners may now choose from the genteel, old-school places, humming along for decades; th...

When entering the Talavera dining room, you don’t see into it as much as you see through it–right to the cotton candy sunsets and cactus-speckled mountain panoramas that await through the expansive window wall. You’ll likely catch a glimpse of the restaurant’s gorgeous patio, too, where diners get a front-row seat to the desertscape, alongside a da...

"Mission Classic," a three-part docuseries featuring an inside look at the Italian National Baseball Team before and during the 2023 World Baseball Classic, is now LIVE! Part 2 is about a Team Italy mini camp and send-off dinner in Arizona. This piece was produced in partnership by the Federation of Italian Baseball and Softball and the Italian Ame...