Larry Cruikshank/ViewJoe D?Amore, owner of D?Amore?s Pizza, 2101 N. Rainbow Blvd., shows some of the specialty desserts created by Jennifer Liberti, owner of Heavenly Dipped catering, that are available in his restaurant.
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Joe D'Amore is back in business.
Actually, he was never gone. After opening the family's namesake restaurant at 2101 N. Rainbow Blvd. with his dad, Joe. Sr., nearly five years ago, he moved on to open Blondie's, a sports bar on the Strip. But his family retained half-ownership in the northwest restaurant.
Now, he's returned to the pizza business full time. His family resumed full ownership of the restaurant in November, and things have never been better, he said.
"When we first opened in Las Vegas, we did well, but with all of our Southern California locations, it was a lot to handle," D'Amore said. "And then I opened Blondie's 31/2 years ago, and we turned it into the top sports bar on the Strip.
"But I really wanted to get back with the locals here. Even on the Strip, we tried to really wrap our arms around the locals, and now that we're back here full time, we're getting rave reviews."
The restaurant stays true to the cooking of D'Amore's late grandmother, who the family lovingly refers to as "Mommanonna." That means using a low-moisture, low-cholesterol mozzarella cheese, 100-percent pure virgin olive oil and only the July crop of tomatoes to make the pizza sauce because "they're naturally the sweetest," D'Amore said.
The restaurant also imports water from Boston -- the family hails from nearby Brockton, Mass. -- in order to craft the perfect pizza dough.
"We've got jugs of it everywhere," D'Amore said.
He's especially proud of the pizza's health factor, as well, touting statistics that a slice of pie from D'Amore's has 3.8 grams of fat and 166 calories, compared to 46 grams and 740 calories from a Pizza Hut slice.
"Food can taste good and still be not horrible for you," he said. "I like to show that to people after they've eaten. They'll notice it's a big lighter, but the taste ... there's no comparison. I think it's the perfect pizza."
D'Amore's father opened the original D'Amore's in Southern California in 1987 and earned a cult following as the favorite pizza of the stars due to all the movie and television set catering jobs he pulled off. Now, there are eight California locations.
"We do all the big movies and TV shows in L.A.," D'Amore said. "We do all Tom Cruise's movies, all Jim Carrey's, and we used to do all of Schwarzenegger's."
The Hollywood connection would explain all the celebrity photographs that line the walls of the local store. But there are just as many family photos, as well, demonstrating another essential ingredient in the D'Amore recipe.
The restaurant also serves specialty entrees such as penne alla vodka and pollo di marsalla crafted by chef Scott Persson, who came to Las Vegas to help open celebrity chef Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill restaurant at Caesars Palace.
Another new element on the menu are the specialty desserts crafted by Jennifer Liberti. Liberti, who operates out of D'Amore's kitchen and is expanding her own Heavenly Dipped catering business, creates "the best pastries in Las Vegas," D'Amore said.
"Joe is kind of like a mentor to me in the business sense," said Liberti, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in her native New York. "People have been loving the display and taking my card; I'm just going along with it."
D'Amore is particularly fond of a dessert where she stuffs a strawberry with fresh mango and dips the whole thing in chocolate.
"These ideas just pop into my head," Liberti said. "I think, 'What if I tried this?' Then I find out no one else has done it before."
D'Amore's Pizza is open Sunday through Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
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