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    better than blini

    Houston pizzeria unveils indulgent caviar pizza for the holiday season

    Eric Sandler
    Dec 11, 2024 | 1:32 pm
    Pizaro's Pizza caviar

    Get the Holiday Decadence pizza through the end of December.

    Courtesy of Pizaro's Pizza

    One of Houston’s most well-regarded pizzerias is giving diners a way to splurge this holiday season. For a limited time only, Pizaro’s Pizza is topping one of its Neapolitan-style pies with caviar.

    Called the Holiday Decadence, it’s a personal-sized, 8-inch, Neapolitan-style pizza topped simply with Pizaro’s housemade mozzarella cheese and seasoned with a little furikake. Alongside, the restaurant provides diners with lemon zest crème fraîche, a small bottle of prosecco, and a one-ounce jar of paddlefish caviar from Houston’s DR Delicacy. Priced at $59, it’s either an indulgent treat for one person or an extravagant appetizer for two.

    Pizaro’s co-owner Nicole Bean tells CultureMap she sees the new pizza as an improvement on the caviar special the restaurant tried two years ago, which used its thicker, Detroit-style pizza.

    “This year, we simplified things,” she says. “We made it more affordable. We added more caviar. The feature is the caviar, focusing on having a whole, one-ounce container either for yourself or to share with one other person.”

    In this configuration, the pizza crust essentially serves as an oversized blini, with the furikake boosting the caviar’s oceanic flavors. Serving the caviar in the jar allows diners to add as much or as little to the pizza as they want. Introduced last week, Bean says the restaurant hasn’t sold that many caviar pizzas yet, but that doesn’t surprise her.

    “People are a little hesitant with it being caviar and the $60 price point,” she says. “It’s not for everybody. It’s for people who are curious and want to try it or really love caviar and want to try it every way they can.”


    View this post on Instagram
    A post shared by Imani Guillory (@the_imani_experience)


    The restaurant always uses its monthly specials to experiment beyond familiar toppings like pepperoni and mushroom. Next month, Bean and her brother, co-owner Matt Hutchinson, will present dueling pies — his topped with crispy prosciutto, sautéed onions, and balsamic drizzle and hers a simple tomato pie, anchovies optional but strongly encouraged.

    “The fun thing about pizza is you can literally do anything with it,” Bean says. “I want people to try different things on pizza. It can be decadent. It can be upscale. It can be fresh and new.”

    The Holiday Decadence is available at both Pizaro’s locations through December 31. Find more details at the Pizaro’s Pizza website.

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    in like the rose

    Mimo duo open tiny Italian sandwich and gelato shop in Houston's East End

    Eric Sandler
    Apr 29, 2026 | 5:52 pm
    La Rosa Fernando Rios Mike Sammons
    Photo by Eric Sandler
    Chef Fernando Rios and Mike Sammons recently opened La Rosa.

    When sommelier Mike Sammons and chef Fernando Rios teamed up to open their East End Italian restaurant Mimo in 2023, they did so by serving sandwiches that eventually went away once the restaurant moved to only being open for dinner with full service.

    Thankfully, the sandwiches are back at La Rosa, the duo’s new sandwich restaurant that, like Mimo, is located in the East End’s Tlaquepaque Market shopping center. Currently, it’s open Tuesday-Sunday with sandwiches for lunch (12-3 pm) and gelato until the early evening.

    “I have always wanted to do a sandwich shop. That’s always been a weird dream since an experience I had in Italy when I was younger,” Sammons tells CultureMap. “Even back in the days at 13 Celsius, that was a big driver for the mortadella sandwich we still do there.”

    La Rosa’s menu is as compact as its space, which has four indoor tables, a little dining counter, and a couple of outdoor tables. It consists of three sandwiches:

    • Mortadella, with fior di latte, arugula, pesto di pistachio, mostarda, and garlic aioli
    • Formaggio, a vegetarian sandwich with corn and zucchini fritters, arugula, pesto di pistachio, mostarda, and garlic aioli
    • A daily special that, on April 29, was made with bresaola, pecorino, horseradish crema, capers, arugula, and lemon.

    La Rosa Fernando Rios Mike Sammons

    Photo by Eric Sandler

    Chef Fernando Rios and Mike Sammons recently opened La Rosa.

    “We R&D’ed the hell out of them,” Sammons says about the sandwiches. “I can’t tell you how many mortadellas we’ve tasted and how many different kinds of fior di latte. Even the way we do the pesto di pistachio — dry as a bone or super wet with lots of olive oil.”

    Alright, Mike, explain how nerdy you and chef got with the ingredients in the mortadella sandwich.

    “First of all, when it comes to the mortadella, you have to be able to cut it so thinly you can look through it. It has to have a certain integrity and still have bite to it,” he explains. “The fior di latte has to be creamy and snappy. You have to be able to crush it flat so it oozes all over the sandwich. The pesto di pistachio has to have a real presence of raw pistachio.”

    The duo applied a similar discipline to finding the right platform for La Rosa’s sandwiches. Sammons says he and Rios tried all kinds of bread, eventually settling on a telera roll from Houston favorite El Bolillo.

    “It’s more of a vessel. Bread is always the star of a sandwich, but we want the star of the show to be almost a little hidden, like an uncelebrated special guest,” he says. “It’s crisp and crunchy with a toothsome bite that’s light and airy in the middle. It holds everything together but doesn’t dominate.”

    Similarly, they’re sourcing gelato from Houston’s SweetCup Gelato. Sammons says he tried multiple vendors, but Sweet Cup’s lemon sorbet is the one flavor that most reminded him of Italy. In addition to classics like pistachio, chocolate, and strawberry, chef Rios can work with Sweet Cup on flavors that will be exclusive to La Rosa.

    Rios is already rotating the specials. The opening weekend’s meatball sandwich quickly gave way to this week’s bresaola. Diners have plenty to look forward to, including favorites from the old days like Italian beef and chicken parm.

    Sammons has some aspirations, too. He plans to add beer and wine to the current non-alcoholic offerings of soda and sparkling water.

    The little shop has been surprisingly busy, he adds.

    “We sold out Sunday, which was unexpected,” Sammons says. “If we keep doing that, we’ll make more. So far, everyone has been supportive. I’m really excited. I think it’s going to be great.”

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