Old School Pizzeria is no longer Las Vegas’ best-kept pizza secret. After debuting on Craig Road in North Las Vegas 10 years ago, the ingredient-driven eatery has expanded with a second store in the northwest in November and a third on Blue Diamond Road in the southwest just last month.
That’s three quarters of the Valley comfortably blanketed in incredibly savory sourdough pizza with your favorite toppings, from house-made sausage to cured truffled egg yolks, and everything in between.
“I guess if you say we opened two more locations in one year, it seems like expansion, but I’ve been making pizzas since I was 14, for 35 years now,” owner Gio Mauro says. “So a location per decade doesn’t seem like that many.”
Mauro also runs the beloved Monzú Italian Oven & Bar on West Flamingo, and his family famously opened Italian institution Nora’s Cuisine along the same stretch in 1992. He says there was never a master plan to add more Old School shops, but he always thought the concept was special enough to serve more than one community.
“Pizza is the type of food that can shine in different neighborhoods, and Vegas has come to be a place where there are always more actual neighborhoods being established. I’m sure 10 years from now, I might look back and wonder how I could have thought this was a good time [to expand] coming out of the pandemic, but we were ready.”
You can find other specialty dishes on the Old School menu—like sausage-stuffed chicken wings ($13), antipasto salad ($4.50-$9.50), mac and cheese ($11.50) and roasted chicken thighs ($12.50)—and you can see and taste the same care that goes into the pizza in these offerings.
But “the star is the pizza and the vehicle is the dough,” Mauro says. “Unless you have the dough dialed in, nothing else matters.” That’s why Old School currently has one person making all its dough, moving around to the three locations as needed. “Monster slices” and whole pies ($19.50 for 14 inches to $48 for a gargantuan 24-incher) are always available, with custom creations including the Pork Reigns (pulled pork, sausage, bacon, ham, Calabrese salami and guanciale) and the brilliant Vegas Meets Italy (scamorza, mozzarella and ricotta cheeses with pistachios, dates, tomatoes, prosciutto, arugula and date cream).
If you’re just getting into the vibrant local pizza scene, Old School is a must.
“Pizzerias over the last five years have really had a revolution, and the guest perception is changing … but I think pizza still gets a bad rap, and pizzaiolis get a bad rap,” Mauro says. “In an Italian restaurant, the pizza maker is almost an entry level position, but if I’m a pizzaiolo, I have to know bread-baking principles, how fermentation works, how to combine flavors, how to treat ingredients and make certain ingredients shine, all this other stuff.
“But people are starting to get it, and that’s exciting to me. There is this resurgence of passion toward pizza and we have been able to really shine, and that’s been wonderful, especially in this town.”
OLD SCHOOL PIZZERIA Three locations, pizzaoldschool.com. Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; Friday & Saturday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m.
Click HERE to subscribe for free to the Weekly Fix, the digital edition of Las Vegas Weekly! Stay up to date with the latest on Las Vegas concerts, shows, restaurants, bars and more, sent directly to your inbox!
