Dallas pizza and Italian restaurant to open familiar Fort Worth pizza spot
Partenope, a Dallas restaurant consistently ranked on the list if the top 25 pizzerias in America, will open a Fort Worth location, apparently in the Artisan Circle space that operated for 12 years as Fireside Pies.
Partenope posted a photo of the location on Facebook late on July 16 with the comment: “Partenope is coming to Fort Worth! Our third location is on the way and we can’t wait to share more soon!”
The first Partenope Ristorante opened in 2019 in the historic Titche’s department store building at 1903 Main St., Dallas. Founder Dino Santonicola, from Naples, Italy, is a former executive chef for two other nationally recognized pizzerias, Cane Rosso and Zoli’s.
Dino and Megan Santonicola added a Richardson location.
The Artisan Circle restaurant, 2949 Crockett St., would be their third, this time in a space that was briefly home to the Sí Tapas Spanish restaurant. Fireside Pies had moved to the LeftBank shopping center, where it eventually closed.
The “50 Top Pizza” Italian guide recently ranked Partenope No. 17 in the U.S., beginning the review: ”In the heart of downtown Dallas, inside an elegant historic building, Partenope offers authentic Neapolitan pizza, cooked in a wood-fired oven and prepared with great attention to tradition.”
The judges praised a hot soppressata “Gennarino” pizza, a sausage-prosciutto “Napoli Centrale” and a flash-fried and baked pizza, the “Montanara.”
Parthenope — pronounced “Par-TEN-no-peh” — refers to tame of an early Greek settlement, spelled in Italy as Partenope, on the location of today’s Naples. It is also the name of one of the sirens of Greek mythology.
Artisan Circle,formerly Crockett Row, has been on an upswing with the return of Terra Mediterranean and cousin interior-Mexico restaurant, La Cabrona.
This story was originally published July 17, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
