Cane Rosso — the Dallas-based critically acclaimed Neapolitan pizza restaurant — is making a big push into Houston. In addition to the company's plan to open in the Heights, owner Jay Jerrier announced Wednesday he recently signed a lease for a second location in Montrose.
Located at the corner of Yoakum and Richmond in a recently-constructed office building, the new location will give Cane Rosso a footprint in Houston's most important dining neighborhood.
"We’re making a pretty big commitment to Houston over the next three to five years," owner Jay Jerrier tells CultureMap. "We’re going to have six restaurants in Dallas. There’s no reason we can’t have six in Houston."
Jerrier says the company prioritized the Heights for their first location and had been looking both along Washington Avenue and in Montrose when they came to a deal on this space. The space features a "massive" patio with seats along both Yoakum and Richmond.
Unlike the Heights restaurant, the Montrose location is almost ready for its conversion into a restaurant, which means the two locations could both open in the first quarter of 2016. "We’re following the Treadsack model and opening a bunch of restaurants at the same time," Jerrier says with a laugh. "We’re trying to copycat everybody down in Houston."
Since Jerrier founded Cane Rosso in 2011, the restaurant has taken Dallas by storm — earning international acclaim for its rigorously authentic, VPN-certified pizza that uses high quality, locally-sourced toppings. The Montrose location will be the eighth outpost in Cane Rosso's growing empire.
Jerrier says he isn't concerned about moving closer to being in direct competition with established names like Pizaro's and Dolce Vita as well as newcomer Bollo Woodfired Pizza. "We’re different enough from all of those. We’re not hard-core Italian like Dolce Vita. We’re not fast casual like Pizaro’s, which I liked the last time I visited," Jerrier says.
"We’re not right on top of anybody. In our Deep Ellum neighborhood, there’s six pizzerias within a block of us, and everybody does alright."
A drawing shows the restaurant's layout.
