Pi Pizzeria + ¡Rico! opens Monday in Glendale

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Photography by Kevin A. Roberts

Carbon (steak) and tinga (chicken) taco, two of eight taco options at Pi+Rico

The events of the past year caused an upheaval in the restaurant industry, from seating restrictions to new concepts such as ghost kitchens, which have no seating at all. Chris Sommers, owner of Pi Pizzeria and Gringo, put a version of each under the same roof in Glendale. With apologies to the unforgettable breath mint/candy mint TV commercial from the '60s, Pi Pizzeria + ¡Rico! is “two, two, two restaurants in one!"

Courtesy Pi+Rico

By combining pizza and Mexican food, Sommers mashes up two sure-fire concepts and several more for good measure. The bold window decals—tacos, burgers, pizza, margs—only scratch the surface. Besides offering pizza favorites from Pi, the amalgam tosses in Mexican fare from Rico (Spanish for “tasty”), an aptly named offshoot of Gringo. After eight months of restaurants on rollercoasters, this pizza cantina has the hallmarks of a late-2020 success story.

Courtesy Pi+Rico

Having earlier operated a Pi Pizzeria outpost several miles west, in Kirkwood (which he reluctantly closed in February 2018), Sommers says Pi+Rico! was a low-risk venture.

“We always wanted to get back to the area,” he says, “but didn’t want to spend $1.5 million on a new store.”

After Filomena’s closed earlier this year, he says, every well-known local restaurateur showed interest in the spot, due to its high visibility and drive-through window. “Suburbs are not just where people are living but where they are living and working,” he adds. “We restaurant owners all realize that, which is why locations like that corner are so hard to find.”

Pi+ ¡Rico! is a carryout and delivery-focused musing with minimal dine-in space, similar to many other pizza places. “We’d been working on the Rico brand for a standalone location that never materialized,” Sommers says. “Since the menu for Glendale offered significant tweaks from Gringo, it would be confusing to use that word here. We’re looking at this as a test market of sorts for ¡Rico!.”

Courtesy Pi+Rico

The menu is surprisingly large for such a small space. Pi’s contribution includes several thin-crust favorites and its famous signature deep-dish, corn meal–crust pie. Due to the purchase of several state-of-the-art TurboChef 2620 convection ovens (requiring a new electric pole and three transformers), the deep-dish pizzas can cook in six minutes versus the normal 20, a game-changer that's crucial to Sommers’ model. Six varieties of deep-dish pies and eight thin-crust varieties are offered, as well as a create-your-own option, which also comes on a gluten-free crust.

Photo by George Mahe

Several noteworthy salads are also available, including the Bada Bing from the Pi menu, which includes mixed greens, sliced almonds, gorgonzola, raspberry vinaigrette, and a generous scatter of dried bing cherries. All salads are $8.45, with the option to add proteins for a few more dollars.

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Photography by Kevin A. Roberts

Rico Smash Burger: two beef patties, fundido cheese, Valentina mayo, pickled jalapeno, burger slaw, potato bun, and Rico fries (potato wedges, cotija cheese, red pepper flakes, cilantro).

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Photography by Kevin A. Roberts

Classic Smash Burger: two beef patties, American cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, mayo, ketchup, potato bun, shoestring fries

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Photo by George Mahe

Casting the net further into mass acceptance are two smashed burgers and a fried chicken breast sandwich (available spicy or not) on a Martin’s potato roll that will rival any local or national competitor. (We’d ponder eating the crackly thin breading as a side dish.) Additional secrets are a Valentina mayo (mayo plus Valentina hot sauce), a pickle/jalapeno relish (chopped, jarred jalapeños mixed with sweet pickle relish), and a shake of Rico Sazon, similar to Tajin, a condiment made of chile peppers, lime, and salt.

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Photography by Kevin A. Roberts

At a soft opening held over the weekend, it was ¡Rico!'s Mexican offerings that were the most popular.

“We knew people in this neighborhood missed Pi’s pizza, so we were ready for that,” says corporate chef Cary McDowell, who admits he was surprised at the amount of orders for tacos, burritos, and quesadillas (tri-folded and cut in half, machete-style), a popular item borrowed from Gringo. Guests were also anxious to try the fajitas (steak or chicken), a new offering.

McDowell developed the menu along with ¡Rico! and former Gringo executive chef David Rodriguez. (Locals likely remember Pueblo Nuevo, the soon-to-close restaurant and cantina owned by Andres Morales, Rodriguez' godfather. Over the years, pretty much his entire family—aunts, cousins, parents, and himself—worked at the North County institution.)    

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Photography by Kevin A. Roberts

A trio of Pi+Rico tacos: tinga (chicken), carbon (steak), and classic crunchy

Photo by George Mahe

At Pi+ ¡Rico!, “Chips and Dip” covers all of the bases, with an option for queso, guac, or one of three salsas—verde (mild green), avotierra (spicy green, an homage to the former Mi Tierra, one of McDowell’s Mexican haunts in Metro East), and a medium red house version. (Also available is a pasilla salsa, darker, richer, and as such, a better accompaniment to food than chips.)

Addressing the subject of salsa, McDowell admits to the subjectivity. “Creatively, they’re an impediment, but they’re also liberating, because as long as it hits where you want it to be, then you’re good.” For example, he geared the house salsa to appeal to younger age groups. A base salsa can’t be “too spicy, too smoky, too chunky, too citrusy, or too cilantro-y,” says McDowell.

Sommers concurs. “My kids eat this one,” he says, “and teenagers love this one.” 

Tacos successfully run the protein gamut (carnitas, steak carbon, fish, chicken tinga) and there’s a a scrambled egg, meat, and potato version dubbed the B.A.D. Taco (for breakfast all day). But the breakout item is the Rico-cini, a panko-and cracker-crusted shell surrounding a mix of Mexican rice, chorizo, and sticky fundito cheese. The chef used a similar secret coating while in Arkansas on crabcakes, a trick that he introduced to acclaimed chef Daniel Boulud when he cooked at his NYC restaurant Daniel in the 1990s. His only hint: “The crackers I use are different, butter-ier.”

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Photography by Kevin A. Roberts

Photo by George Mahe

The result is super crunchy on the outside and gooey on the inside, an interpretation of the arancini that the chef remembers from Filomena’s, which he swears was the best in town. He serves the dish with a “whet” sauce, a charred chipotle sauce (puréed, similar to an enchilada sauce), which is topped with cotija cheese.

“Similar to the sharpness that occurs when adding Parmesan to an Italian red sauce, it’s a little acid bomb that adds a new dimension,” he says.

Photo by George Mahe

McDowell concedes that he’s “not after strict authenticity here, obviously, and functionally—they’re the best item on the menu," he says. "They travel so well, they’ll still be crunchy next Tuesday.” 

Speaking of function, the interior of Pi+ ¡Rico! is minimalist, the only pops of color arising from the collection of Missouri license plates affixed below the counter. Otherwise, it’s an expanse of glass and laminated blonde-wood paneling that Sommers says resembles an Apple store. The analogy is apt. “If Cary wasn’t a chef, he would have been an Apple developer," Sommers says, "so this place is like coming home for him.”

Photo by George Mahe

Pi+Rico's beverage offerings include the new Nelly-branded Budweiser beer from Anheuser-Busch.

Orders are placed online for pickup, either curbside or at a pickup window. To keep traffic moving, orders can only be picked up (not placed) at the window, where only easy add-ons will be allowed, such as a potent and not-too-sweet margarita, regular or Cadillac-style, available in a 16-ounce single (resembling a Herradura tequila bottle) or a half-gallon jug.

There are 12 seats inside, which will likely become a moot point next spring, because most denizens will gather outside, in an eye-catching shipping container reimagined as a working bar with “rooftop” seating accessed by a mini-staircase, a novel way to add an outdoor presence when space is limited.

In the end, Sommers and McDowell hope to have created an efficient, one-stop-shop serving a variety of chef-inspired food favorites, a model appropriately designed for the pandemic and beyond.

Pi Pizzeria + ¡Rico! opens initially for dinner only on Monday, October 26. Hours will initially be 4–8 p.m. daily, with lunch and delivery (through DoorDash and UberEATs) added soon.