ANELLO — Restaurant in Tucson

I love pizza. And I’ve tried so many different versions - New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Hawaiian (I know, I’m a monster but I do love Hawaiian). Usually when I hear about “artisan pizzas”, I give them a wide berth. They’re often pricey, underwhelming, eaten for the status vs. the quality. But there is definitely one pizzeria in Tucson that has changed my mind, and that’s Anello. This may very well be the best pizza I’ve ever had! What Scott Girod has brought to Tucson is a treasure! Some friends and I came to Anello after watching a profile of this chef on Arizona Public Media (find the profile online, it’s great to watch).

Anello is a small, intimate restaurant, seating about 30 people. A few small tables and one larger community table. The menu is simple, a few appetizers, three pizzas (plus a specialty pizza on weekends), a couple of choices for dessert. We had started with some wine around the corner at The Royal Room. Walked around the corner to ask how long of a wait it would be, it was only ten minutes. Perfect timing to close out our tab at the Royal Room.

We ordered some glasses of wine with the recommendation of our waiter. This was a three person operation that night, but still, not harried, and very efficient. The menu listed the appetizers including “season vegetables”. That night, Chef Scott had prepared butter stewed carrots and turnips (locally sourced). They were incredible! Perfectly seasoned, warm, buttery, the perfect tenderness. Since there were four of us, we decided sampling of pizza was in order, so we ordered three. The pizzas came out shortly after our ordering, and we could watch Chef Scott prepare them. Now, we were here for pizza, so let’s talk about his pizzas. He proofs the dough overnight and then cooks his pizza in a Stefano Ferrara wood fired oven from Naples. The crust on the pizzas are just as much the star of the dish as are the toppings. First was the marinara, we couldn’t stop raving about it. That combination of perfect crust, perfectly blended garlic, olive oil, tomato, basil sauce! We devoured it instantly. Then the margherita, tomato sauce, mozzarella, basil and olive oil. It didn’t last long either. The third pizza was the bianca - the white pizza, with an added little bite - a hint of chiltepin peppers. Growing up in Tucson, we had a chiltepin plant in the backyard and we would harvest the tiny red peppers, dry them and crush them. They add a heat component that standard crushed red pepper flakes just can’t compete with. They were the perfect addition to the bianca.

Dessert, we tried the flourless almond cake and the gelato. The hint of cardamom in the syrup on the cake was perfect. But that gelato!! That night it was a pistachio gelato. It was the perfect end to a perfect meal.

Once Chef Scott runs out of dough, Anello is done for the night. Since we were there later in the evening, we were lucky that he finished for the night and came out to greet the remaining guests. Scott is humble, caring about his quality and the customer experience. He sat briefly with us and blushed as we praised his food. The combination of his artistry, his food, the friendly service sets Anello apart. Tucson, we have a new star...

Love this place!

Prior to coming here, I had my own suggestions of places to go for dinner. Then my lovely date suggested Anello. I had never been and love new experiences, so I was eager to try a new place out.

Just finding Anello was a challenge (for me, anyway). My mapping app took me to the spot, but I'm pretty sure Anello doesn't have any signage out front. So, recognizing it from the street was impossible. As was parking. I had to park down on Fourth Avenue, actually refreshing short walk away.

You will need reservations for Anello, and those are generally done via email. I was lucky enough to get us a 6 pm reservation on a Friday evening. My lady friend also mentioned to me that, in the event that Anello runs out of pizza dough, the place shuts down for the night.

This place is fairly small, with several tables near the front, and an open kitchen with wood pizza oven at the rear. Lots of pretty woodwork inside, and a full window facing 6th at the front. Probably room for 20 customers at one time would be my guess.

We sat at a table in front of the large front window. Several of the tables are communal larger tables that you would share with other couples.

We ordered drinks and we're brought a carafe of water (really my only complaint of the evening, the water was warm honestly).

Anello has a simple menu. A couple types of pizza, with which you can order a salad and whatever vegetables they have at the time. We ordered the margarita pizza. The vegetables were this amazing concoction of figs and tomatoes on risotto - really yummy. Our salad was a zucchini and goat cheese salad, also very good.

The meal was delicious, the company delightful. Really a lovely place to bring someone special, I highly recommend Anello and hope to...

Overall: I think this place is after something similar to Bianco’s, however some of the dishes just weren’t quite balanced and the atmosphere was so unwelcoming from the staff to even the decor. Bianco’s is the opposite - the staff is warm, friendly and inviting and happy to guide you through the menu, whereas our server at Anello was not. I would not come back to Anello and am sorry we chose to go there for our last meal in Tucson. Vibe: Walked in Saturday evening. Restaurant was about 80% full and there was no wait. Hostess made it seem like an inconvenience we were there (2 of us) without a reservation, however she immediately was able to seat us in the middle of one of the longer family style tables. Waiter came to take our drink order, he also made it seem like it was an inconvenience that my fiancé had asked about a beer. After we got our meal the waiter asked if we’d like another round of drinks, I said yes and asked for a different type of wine and I could tell I’d irritated him. Food: Beer was fresh and hoppy, my wine was natural/unfiltered and very good. Citrus salad with walnuts, radish and parsley dressed with a spicy sauce was delicious. Margherita pizza was outstanding, though a little too salty. Ordered the special which was a 3 cheese and hot pepper pizza - asked to top it with sausage and was told we couldn’t. Pizza was covered with an enormously heavy and soggy amount of cheese. It was so rich and overly salty you really couldn’t eat more than a slice (probably would’ve been better with less cheese and maybe the sausage??). Lemon tart was good, chocolate tart was veryyy rich and again too salty. I do love salt. A lot. But everything was just so heavy...