Put on your stretchy pants, Fort Worth: Gaucho-style pizza is coming to town
You’ve read about restaurants closing.
Goodbye, Buttons. Goodbye, Cork & Pig Tavern. And probably more.
But let’s talk about a successful local restaurant that’s opening a new Fort Worth location.
Until Delucca Gaucho Pizza, the words “gaucho” and “pizza” didn’t go together.
“All we do is what we do well — and what we do well is pizza,” said Evan Caregnato, who founded Delucca after a career with the Texas de Brazil steakhouse chain.
It’s the same concept, but with pizza. And no swords.
The Star-Telegram already reviewed a Southlake location, 2001 W. Southlake Blvd.
The newest location is under construction in Fort Worth at 3010 S. Hulen St., a former chain Italian restaurant.
It’s the fourth location for Delucca, with a growing reputation as a fun family or group restaurant.
“It is just such a great location,” Caregnato said.
Times are tough. But Delucca won’t be ready to open until fall.
“We could not pass this up,” he said.
Delucca is an American version of a Brazilian pizza “rodizio” — very loosely, rotating pizza.
The dinner includes a rotation of 20-22 pizzas, all brought by each table so the gauchos can serve a slice.
The fixed price of less than $20 includes a cup of lobster bisque with brandy, an arugula salad, meatballs and entree and dessert pizzas.
Caregnato said his favorite pizza is the Turkish lamb with sumac and purple onion. But besides pepperoni or sausage-jalapeno, a customer favorite is covered in elote.
“A lot of friends of mine said, ‘You can’t put corn on a pizza!’ “ he said.
“People love it.”
The dessert pizzas are not to be overlooked: Nutella, bananas flambe, coconut-dulce de leche, blackberry-mascarpone, pear-Gorgonzola-honey.
“Delucca exceeds expectations and then some,” Star-Telegram reviewer Anna Caplan wrote in 2018. “I can’t wait to go back.”
The Southlake location is open for dinner weekdays and Saturdays, lunch and dinner Sundays; 682-477-4040, delucca.com.
This story was originally published May 6, 2020 at 5:45 AM.
