After building decades of experience in hospitality, chef Craig Carlino is getting ready to launch a new pizza concept that will combine a high-quality culinary approach (including ingredients imported straight from Italy) with a relaxed atmosphere and an affordable price point. Carlino’s Pizza Bar will open its doors at 2621 N Federal Highway in Boca Raton.
Carlino, who picked up his culinary chops in Sicily, is best known for his work as executive chef at E11EVEN Miami and for his family’s Papa Leone Pizzeria, which operated for decades in Brooklyn. The chef spoke with What Now on Wednesday about plans for his new Boca Raton pizza shop and bar.
“It’s going to be very high quality food at very reasonable prices. A slice of pizza is still the best value you can get, if you think about it,” Carlino said. “As a highly trained Italian chef, I just wanted to do something more casual, where people can hang out and enjoy themselves.”
You get the sense of Carlino’s Pizza Bar’s family-restaurant roots from pizza varieties like Sunday Sauce Pizza. The menu will also feature salads, a selection of pastas and other entrees, and more. The space, which seats about 125, will be decked out with twelve TVs for sporting events, making Carlino’s a hangout in addition to a pizza shop. As Carlino puts it, “It’s a place to get a slice of pizza and a martini.”
Moving into a more casual pizza space, however, Carlino says there’s one aspect that is particularly difficult for an Italian chef to deal with, and which he’s decided to take head-on: the widespread love of ranch dressing on pizza.
“This is actually one of the things I’m most proud of,” said Carlino. “I could never really wrap my head around serving ranch dressing with pizza. But people like it, and they ask for it, and then you have explain why you don’t have it. So I’ve created my own garlic cream dip—and, it turns out, it’s fabulous.”
Keep an eye out for Carlino’s Pizza Bar, coming soon to Boca Raton!
