An old pizza favorite near TCU brings back the flavor, and offers a Horned Frogs deal

For much of the last 37 years, Perrotti’s Pizza ranked near the top of Fort Worth pizzas, almost as good as Mama’s.

We used to call Perrotti’s Fort Worth’s best delivery pizza. There are more choices now — Olivella’s, for one — but Perrotti’s has restored its original 1986 recipes and is luring back old customers.

It’s TCU football season, so the relevant news of the moment is that Perrotti’s is offering $5 off on Fridays if you wear purple when you pick up the order.

Just order at least $15 worth of pizza, pasta, desserts or salads.

That’s the best TCU-area deal for the annual dining discount promotion known as “Go Purple Fridays.”

An aside: There’s one bigger bargain. All area Rudy’s Country Store and Bar-B-Q locations are offering buy-one-get-one-free sandwiches Fridays for those in purple. But the nearest locations are in north Fort Worth or Burleson.

Perrotti’s small take-out shop, 3021 Greene Ave., is only one block from campus and less than 1 mile from Amon G. Carter Stadium..

A second, larger Perrotti’s is open near the Chisholm Trail Parkway at 5228 Sycamore School Road. A franchise location at 6136 Southwest Boulevard has different offers.

Fort Worth-based ALG Holdings bought the original pizzeria in 2021. Executive Jeremy “JB” Yowell turned back the clock and brought back the Perrotti’s pizza of memory.

“We decided this is a good brand and let’s get it back to how it started,” Yowell said.

He consulted with the Perrotti family, which had sold the restaurant long ago.

“We’ve got the good cheese back and the fresher ingredients,” Yowell said.

“The difference is that our dough is fresh. The big chains’ dough is frozen, and they use a lot of oils. We may not be as quick, but we don’t just ‘process’ our pizzas — we actually make them.”

He remembers teen-age trips from his home in the Hallmark neighborhood to a since-gone Perrotti’s on Altamesa Boulevard.

But he never dreamed he’d be selling pizza.

“But I love eating pizza, so it’s right up my alley,” he said.

Two pizzas on a recent visit definitely upheld the tradition.

The fresh dough for a pan pizza (three sizes, $7.49-$24.99) was full of flavor, nothing like the cardboard or styrofoam flavor of chain pizzas.

A thin-crust pizza had less dough but gave a platform for fresh toppings such as mushrooms, olives and green pepper or jalapenos.

There’s a “Works” pizza ($11.99-$24.99) with five meats plus vegetables.

These aren’t artisan toppings like you might find at a wood-fired pizza tavern. They’re just familiar toppings on a good crust.

There’s also a gluten-free variety.

Besides pizzas, Perrotti’s serves calzones, spaghetti, fettuccine Alfredo and lasagna, plus salads.

Dessert was a surprise: better-quality cherries, apples or pineapple spread on top of a crust with cinnamon butter, sugar, crumbles and icing ($8.49-$18.49).

ALG, which also owns the area Hyena’s Comedy Nightclubs along with Perk Coffee locations in New York, plus to expand and open two to four locations every year, Yowell said.

Business has doubled since ALG brought back old recipes, he said. Three-fourths of the customers are neighborhood residents, not campus students.

Both company-owned Perrotti’s locations are open for lunch and dinner daily; 817-927-2209 or 817-989-9268, perrottis.pizza.

This story was originally published September 5, 2023 at 5:30 AM.