Phoenix is rich in pizza.
The sprawling metropolis is home not only to the world's most famous pizza maker, but also legions of talented pizzaiolos slinging everything from Neapolitan-style pies and Chicago deep-dish to the thin-crusted, Provel-covered creation beloved in St. Louis and pinsa, the ancient Roman dish that's almost pizza but not quite.
Even the world's largest pizza company knows how much the Valley loves 'za. In October, Pizza Hut chose a single Phoenix store to test its latest innovations: a round box and plant-based pizza topping, both of which sold out in one day.
Though Phoenix is rich in pizza, it's poor in pizza lore.
It's not because there was no pizza of note before Bronx-born chef Chris Bianco took to making it in a wood fired oven in Heritage Square in 1996. There are families who came to Phoenix and started making pizza using time-tested recipes almost four decades ago. Some including the Barros, Spinatos and Meis, the family behind Nello's, are still going strong.
There are few neighborhoods from Sun City to San Tan Valley without a Barro's Pizza of their own. Chicago-born brothers John and Angelo Barro grew up in a big Italian-American family and went west to start the family-owned chain in southern California in 1968. Angelo uprooted to try his luck in Arizona and opened the first metro Phoenix Barro's in the East Valley in 1981. Now, the brand belongs to a foursome of second-generation owners who each oversee their own corner of the family pizza kingdom.
Just two years after Barro's debut, another pair of brothers — also from an Italian family in Chicago — opened their own restaurant in a Tempe strip mall with the help of their mother, Cleone Mei. The menu didn't have pizza when the doors opened in 1983, but it wasn't long before Nello's became known for its unique take on deep-dish and founders Brian and Gino called in their older brothers, Ray and Danny, to help run the fast-growing business. Three decades later there are two Nello's restaurants still in operation, and Cleone's grandson Aric Mei runs The Parlor, a restaurant known for serving some of the best pizza in the state.
That was just a few years after Ken and Elaine Spinato moved to the Phoenix area from Chicago and opened their first pizzeria under the name Aurelio's in Scottsdale in 1974. They changed the name to Spinato's in 1984. When the restaurant relocated to a Tempe industrial park in 1986, the brand we know today came into its own. These days, the family-owned and -operated company has five locations around the Valley and a successful line of frozen pizza products. It's all overseen by Ken and Elaine's two children, Anthony and Nicole, and their significant others.
These are the winding tales of how three families brought their secret sauces and special spice blends from Italy to Chicago and finally to Phoenix. For generations they've worked to create enduring brands that have become a part of Phoenix's identity. This is Phoenix's pizza history.
Phoenix, by way of Italy and Chicago
Aric Mei, owner of The Parlor Pizzeria: If you want to wind the tape all the way back, my grandfather Dante Mei was from Tuscany, Italy. Lucca is the name of the little town. A little bit south of there he had this iconic restaurant. It was like a supper club and there was dancing and all that stuff. It was called La Bussola. My understanding is that at one point it was like somebody described it as "the Studio 54 of Italy."
Mike Barro, owner of Barro's Pizza: I am the son of Angelo and Doran Barro. My grandma came from Italy. My grandpa lived here, I don't know where — his parents, I think, were in New York and then he moved to Chicago. Anyway, he met my grandma who came over when she was 18. They got married. They had two children, John and Angelo, the brothers. That was it.
Anthony Spinato, vice president of Spinato's Pizzeria: Really how this whole thing got started is in 1974 when my parents, who came from Italy to Chicago, made the decision to move out to Phoenix from Chicago. My father was in a partnership back then. He worked for Joe Aurelio in a restaurant called Aurelio's. They were both buying land in Fountain Hills in the '70s so they partnered up and opened the restaurant out here. That was the year before I was born.
Mei: My grandfather immigrated to the U.S. at 14. His dad died at 16 and so at a very young age, he was cast into being the patriarch, you know, not even speaking the language of this country. Fast forward to Wellsville, Utah, where he was enlisted in the Army. He was a translator for the Italian internment camps during WWII, for these Italian prisoners of war. He met my grandmother who was this white Mormon woman and they were quite the odd couple. They ended up getting married and moving back to Chicago. He owned a small restaurant and bar that was a place where a lot of the police would hang out. So they started a family there. They had four boys. My dad is the oldest, his name's Danny. Ray is the second oldest. Gino is the third oldest, or Eugene, and Brian is the youngest.
Barro: My dad and his brother were born and raised in Chicago. My dad ended up taking a career in coaching and teaching and his brother was a mason, initially, and always wanted to do a pizza place. They may have had one in Chicago but they had their eyes set on southern California.
BUILDING A LEGACY: These 3 restaurants played key roles in Phoenix's pizza history
An idea: Open a restaurant
Spinato: We had a restaurant in Scottsdale on 68th Street and McDowell. There's a Ferrari dealership there now. It was under the name of Aurelio's because it was, again, a partnership. Ten years later, my dad bought Joe Aurelio out. So that's really when Aurelio's turned into Spinato's. We operated in that location for, I think, another two years and the lease was up and that's when we moved in 1986 to our little Tempe store.
Barro: The first store was in Hacienda Heights in 1968 and my uncle John started to franchise and ended up having a handful of locations. Then John called my father Angelo to join him. So my dad went out in '76 and that's when it got ramped up. They opened up, I think, 60 franchises in five years. So by 1981 there were 60-some Barro's Pizzas in southern California.
Mei: So, cut to my dad moving to Utah and becoming an engineer. Ray stayed in Chicago, and then the two youngest brothers, they were kind of caught up in the '60s and I think my uncle Gino had a VW bus and was traveling the country. The story I heard was that when he would stop in a place for a while, he would get a job at whatever pizza restaurant was around.
My grandparents finally decided to retire and they moved to Sun City in the late '70s. Grandfather, shortly after they come to retire, passes away. My grandmother was kind of worried about her two youngest boys and somewhere along the line the idea came along to open an Italian beef sandwich shop.
The early days of the businesses
Spinato: So we opened up in Tempe and basically started over in 1986. I remember our first day's sales at that location were 69 cents. We sold a medium coke. Not even a pizza. I was in sixth grade at that time. My sister with in eighth grade. I literally worked there every day during the summer and we were doing like $100 to $200 a day in sales.
Mei: My grandmother funded most of it. They went ahead and started construction. So my dad tells the story that at 10:30 one evening the phone rings, we're in Utah, and my grandmother is hysterical. A city inspector had just wandered in asking, "Hey what's going on?"
They hadn't opened yet but they were getting ready and they were kind of out of money. So my grandmother called my dad and she called Ray. Both were builders. The two of them grabbed their buckets of tools and jumped on a flight and came to Phoenix. They tore the whole thing apart and worked tirelessly for weeks and got them where they needed to be and they split and went back to their families. So, technically it was Gino and Brian that created Nello's and there was a huge push from the whole family to get the thing off the ground.
Barro: Chicago is, as you probably know, there's all kinds of pizza in Chicago. Thin crust. Thick crust. Pan pizza. It's just, it's not one pizza. And this recipe was my grandma Angelina's recipe. So we just took her recipe, which was a light, airy kind of crust, and brought it out here.
'It really did become this big familial scene'
Mei: So they were from Chicago and they were selling sandwiches and they had some customers come in and say, "Do you ever do any pizza?" And they're from Chicago, so what are you gonna do? A deep dish pizza. But the problem with deep dish pizza is it takes 45 minutes to bake. So they had the idea of trying to parbake a deep-dish crust and they tried it and it worked. It was this delicious, kind of lighter and airier than a traditional deep dish and it took off.
Barro: The two Italian brothers got along for about five years and then it broke. My dad made John an offer saying: If you give me one location in Yorba Linda, California, and the rights in the state of Arizona, I will give my 25% of the business back to you. John agreed.
So in 1981 my mom and dad, Angela and Doran, came out here. It took a while to get their first lease. It was Alma School and Guadalupe in 1981. That's when Dobson Ranch was brand new. I was still back in California and they requested that I come out there and help them open it and manage it in 1981.
Mei: I don't know the timeline but it wasn't long after that someone from the New Times stumbled in and tasted it and they named it Best of Phoenix for the Best Pizza. Categorically. All of the sudden, the thing exploded and the space next door was vacant so they picked up the phone again and called the two brothers and said, hey do you want to help us expand? That trip it was discussed — "what if we make this an equal partnership?" — because everybody had complementary skills. So that was when we uprooted and moved here. It really did become this big familial scene.
Spinato: We both never thought we would do the family business thing but we both took time and my dad never put the pressure on us to work here. We both worked at other, not restaurants, but other businesses and it led us back to our business. So that's when we make the commitment: OK, we're going to do this.
And that's where it started to get a little more difficult because like any family business, I would imagine, the first generation, my parents, have their vision for the business and then my sister Nicole and I have our vision. But as we grew my dad gave us a little bit more rope and said, "OK you can try this." I think like anything, you have to earn it.
Growing, and growing pains
Mei: So the families all convened in Phoenix and then they started growing and within about four or five years they grew to four locations. At that point each brother took one location. Now granted in those years it was not all roses. You know my dad and his brothers, they are kind of famous for having tempers. So when the company grew to the size it became, I think there was some relief like, "OK, you take your store and I'll take my store."
The problem was, as the years rolled on, the locations drifted further and further apart. Eventually some of the brothers decided they were done with operations and so they ended up selling locations to outside investors and each new investor had their own ideas of what Nello's needed to be. So basically the cat was out of the bag and they couldn't catch him.
Barro: My parents have since passed away. My younger brother Bruce who was working for my mom and dad now runs their company and owns it. Obviously, having 41 locations gives us power for buying and such. But it keeps a lot of peace in the family by having separate companies as well. So we all get along quite well.
Spinato: So my brother-in-law and my wife are both part of the family business. My nephew was working it in for quite a few years. He just graduated college. Kind of like my dad did with Nicole and I, it was just one of those things that it happened naturally without having to ask and it's been great.
It's a big family dynamic and it's difficult for our staff sometimes because how do you go complain to your boss about his sister or brother? So we're aware of that but I think we get along really well as a family. But like any family, we still have our quirks and issues but I think we work very well together because we've had to learn how to do that.
Mei: Over the years, those two locations that had been sold have shuttered. So now there's two locations still operated by the original partners, the oldest and the youngest. My dad and Brian. Ahwatukee for us and Mesa for Brian and Sheila. You know, if you go into the two locations, they are very different. Aesthetically. Even some of the recipes have changed over the years.
The future and the family legacy
Barro: My dad and my mom, they're both 77, so my mom is retired. My dad, he's here today. He comes in three days a week and has an office on the other side there, next to our CFO. He goes into the restaurants once a week, each restaurant one time a week. He's just got to do something.
Mei: The Nello's in Ahwatukee is a long evolution. The Nello's in Mesa is a pretty close copy of where the Nello's brand started in 1983. So it's an interesting story of how the Nello's brand grew and at times sort of splintered. There's a lot of things that are core and common to the locations. The fundamental pieces of the deep dish pizza are the same. The biggest departure was that in Ahwatukee we have a wood-burning oven.
Spinato: We've had a lot of success keeping it in the family and controlling everything and there's interest in our children. The kids are interested, so there's a legacy to pass to. To be honest with you, my two boys, I tell them, "Do what you love." This is going to be here. You'll be owners one day regardless, but do what you love because it goes by fast.
Mei: I spent a lot of nights working that oven and I really fell in love with the alchemy of it. I spent 8 years in Los Angeles but I had this idea of getting back on this path I grew up on and taking all this knowledge I'd gleaned by designing and building sets and how I could apply it to restaurants. Ultimately, that's where The Parlor came from.
Barro: That was probably one of the hardest things from a family business standpoint. You know, trying to see inward, to this succession, and what's next and how do you let go of this and — it's frightening. Trying to make the whole thing work without hurting your family. Because I still want to go to his house on Sunday and have family dinner. I think that's why we really had to figure out how to handle things better, you know. Because you just never stop being a family.
The metro Phoenix pizza tycoons
Aric Mei: Aric Mei is a third-generation restaurateur and owner of The Parlor Pizzeria in central Phoenix. He grew up in his family's restaurant, Nello's in Mesa. That location is one of several that spun off from the original Nello's opened in 1983 by Aric's uncles Brian and Gino Mei along with his grandmother Cleone. His parents, Dan and Barbara, continue to own and operate one of the two remaining Nello's restaurants.
Mike Barro: Mike Barro is one of four owners of Barro's Pizza, a Phoenix-based pizza chain with more 40 locations around Arizona. Mike — along with his siblings Bruce, Ken and Gina — is a third-generation owner of the family-owned and -operated company founded by his father Angelo, his uncle John, and Italian-born grandmother Angelina, in 1968.
Anthony Spinato: Anthony Spinato is vice president of Spinato's Pizzeria, a family-owned and -operated company with five locations around metro Phoenix and a line of retail food products. He, his wife Jaime, sister Nicole and brother-in-law Kris run the business, which his parents Ken and Elaine Spinato started in Scottsdale in 1974.
Reach the reporter at lauren.saria@azcentral.com. Follow her on Instagram at laurensaria, on Twitter at lhsaria and on Facebook at facebook.com/lsaria.
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Meet the pizza tycoons: An oral history of 3 family-owned pizzerias in metro Phoenix - AZCentral.com
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