It’s Friday night. The work week has worn you down, and the only thing that is getting you from 3:30 to 5 is the thought of crisp crust, light sauce, and gooey melted cheese. The Friday night pizza party is the thing of beauty. Even if it’s not a party, and it’s just you and your S/O, the end of the week is always worth a celebration.
For week 6 of 52 Weeks of Pizza, we once again made a journey to the eastside of Tucson to try Tino’s Pizza. To me it was always just the place next to the real nu-metal looking salon. But Tino’s has been around since before I was born and I certainly wasn’t giving it enough credit. The thought of eating at a place that has been making pizza longer than I have been alive brings great joy to my heart, because you know to stay in business for more than 30 years, you have to be doing it right. I mean, look at this (Courtesy of Tino’s Pizza Instagram account):
Tino’s makes their pizza from scratch. The ingredients are quality, and the atmosphere has that comfortable pizza parlor charm. Had I not been so hungry and longing for the comfort of no pants, I could totally see myself hanging out, having an ice cold beer, watching a Cats game and completely devouring The Big Mo, a 20″ square cut pie, which I would top with classic pepperoni.
Tino’s has other offerings including wings, salads, and sandwiches. They even have legit breakfast pizza, that can be topped with things like eggs, bacon, chorizo and peppadew (yeah, I had to look up what peppadew was too) and crumbled potatoes.
This week, our pizza of choice was The Greek. (Which also happened to be very similar to the pizza we had in week 1). Tino’s Greek style pizza is a red sauce pie, topped with sliced tomato, black olives, artichoke, pepperoncini (YES!), fresh garlic, feta and drizzled with olive oil. There’s something that’s been attracting me to these Greek pizzas lately, and it’s all about balance. Even though there are several toppings, they compliment each other so well. The salty olives with the veggie-sweetness of the artichokes. The pepperoncini spice, mellowed by the creamy salty feta. They all work together to satisfy your hunger.
Breaking down the pie:
Crust: Fresh dough, hand-tossed had a medium thickness, very sturdy, and stood up to a heavy helping of sauce and toppings. Still had a nice break to it. Well balanced with salt. Tender in the middle and was a bit chewy around the crust.
Toppings: Good ratio of toppings to crust.
Sauce: Heavy on the sauce, but it was a really great sauce. Probably one of my favorite red sauces I’ve had this year. The herbs stand out and there is a good balance of tangy sweetness.
Overall: The Greek ($21.50 for 14″) 🍕🍕🍕 3/4 out of 5 slices. This place is great and a true OG of Tucson pizza. I would definitely eat there again. I think their prices are a little high, but the pizza was great and completely filling. Worth a visit, if you, like myself, had passed it up thinking it was just another stripmall pizza joint.
Tino’s Pizza
6610 East Tanque Verde Road
Tucson, AZ 85715
Still craving more? Well then checkout Tucson local food radio show On the Menu Live!’s coverage of this Tucson staple, where they chat with Dino Chonis himself. Listen here.
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