Pizza News

Saucy pizza from Arizona debuts in Texas with restaurant north of Dallas

A trio of pizzas.

Sauce

A new restaurant hits Dallas-Fort Worth with great pizzas and fine-sounding salads: Called Sauce Pizza & Wine, it's a fast, fresh Italian concept that opens its first Texas location on August 15 in Gates of Prosper at 1151 S. Preston Rd. #10.

Sauce Pizza & Wine started out as a member of the esteemed Fox Restaurant Concepts family. The first opened in Tucson in 2003. FRC founder Sam Fox sold it to a trusted associate, Scott Kilpatrick, whom he knew would be able to make the concept grow.

The concept has since expanded to Arizona, New Mexico, and now Texas.

Kilpatrick says they take the food very seriously. The menu boasts high-end ingredients such as arugula and fig. And the chicken that's in their bestseller chicken and pine nuts salad is cooked in house and shredded by hand.

"We're proud of the quality of our food which is unique in a fast-casual environment," he says.

Pizzas include prosciutto & fig white pizza with black mission figs, goat cheese, and arugula; and the rosemary potato white pizza with spinach, feta, olive tapenade, and truffle oil.

Putting potato on your pizza is totally next level.

For crust, they have two dough options, Kilpatrick says.

"The original crust is very thin - that's what most folks get," he says. "We also have a hand-stretched crust that's thicker. It's not deep dish-thick, but more of an American style. We recommend the thicker dough for to-go orders because it survives better. The thin-crust is something you eat quickly right out of the oven."

But Sauce also does great-sounding salads such as salmon and kale with black currants, cashews, farro, romaine hearts, and champagne vinaigrette; and quinoa, beet, and arugula with beets, avocado, goat cheese, fuji apples, pistachios, and red wine vinaigrette.

The Italian chopped has pepperoni, soppressata, smoked mozzarella, pepperoncini, kalamata olives, yellow tomatoes, cucumber, carrots, red onion, garbanzo beans, and roasted garlic vinaigrette.

They also do seasonal salads such as their summer salad with watermelon and arugula. Anything with arugula is good. Fitzpatrick says that salads represent a pretty big slice of business.

"We feel like our salads are one of the ways that Sauce differentiates itself," Kilpatrick says. "An interesting side note is that we sell more salads than we do pizza. They're a large part of our menu, and about half our sales are at lunch when salads are far more popular."

One clever dish is an appetizer called Caprese "skewers," with mozzarella, grape tomatoes, basil, and balsamic glaze.

Pizza and pasta can also be made gluten-free.

pizza

Hummus News

New Mediterranean restaurant in McKinney spotlights Greek and Lebanese

Ilio's

Chicken shawarma plate at Ilio's Greek & Lebanese

A new Mediterranean restaurant starring two cuisines has debuted in McKinney: Called Ilio’s Greek & Lebanese Restaurant, it's now open at 210 N. Custer Rd. #130, with a collection of Middle Eastern favorites like gyros, shawarma, kebabs, hummus, falafel, and pita wraps.

The restaurant, which opened in mid-May in a center on the newer west side of McKinney, is from a pair of restauraunt veterans, Anas Abu-Ziad, nicknamed "Ziad," and Talal Hammad, who owned a similarly-themed and similarly-named concept in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Managing the front of the house is Ziad's affable wife Jessica Gardener, whose doting customer service has quickly made her a diner favorite.

"The idea with combining Greek and Lebanese was to make the restaurant inviting to everyone," Gardener says.

Baton Rouge has a reputation for good Greek and Lebanese food, even boasting a few restaurants that feature "Greek & Lebanese" as part of their name. Those two cuisines are slightly less common in Dallas, where the Middle-Eastern restaurant scene has been dominated mostly by Turkish and Syrian places.

Ilio's, which was the ancient Greek name for the city of Troy and is a popular moniker for Greek restaurants across the U.S., specializes in sizzling grilled kebobs, which are available in chicken, beef, shrimp, and kafta, the Lebanese favorite consisting of ground meat — often a combination of beef and lamb, with spices, onions, and herbs — molded into a long cylinder.

Greek dishes include dolmas (stuffed grape leaves with rice), spinach pie, and lamb shank — all dishes that can appear on many Middle Eastern menus but are most closely allied with Greek cuisine. That includes moussaka, the homey casserole dish made with eggplant, meat sauce, and bechamel — although Ilio's version is deconstructed, which is easier for restaurants to execute than the traditional layered version favored by home cooks.

Hummus comes in three options: traditional, Mediterranean, and Sultan, topped with chunks of meat. Other Mediterranean classic dishes include chicken shawarma, gyro plates, falafel, and fried halloumi cheese.

Most dishes come in under $15 and the restaurant is also BYOB.

There are extra-healthy dishes including salads, lentil soup, and pita wraps, made with pita that's a little softer and less doughy than many pitas in town. And there's also a fusion twist that's very Texas: a "Greek quesadilla" with your choice of grilled meat stacked between pita bread.

greek cuisine lebanese cuisine mckinney mediterranean restaurant middle eastern favorites openings