This New York-style pizzeria is planning to open 5 locations in Fresno, Clovis area
A New York-style pizzeria is planning to open five locations in the Fresno area.
Russo’s New York Pizzeria plans to open its first location at the northeast corner of Herndon and Fowler avenues in Clovis, in the same shopping center as Save Mart and Starbucks. It’s scheduled to open sometime this fall.
The restaurants sell big thin pizzas by the slice – the kind you see New Yorkers fold in half before chomping down – and whole pies.
The pizzas made with hand-tossed dough come in 12-inch, 16-inch or the massive 28-inch round size. You can also get a 16-inch square pizza.
Pizzas on the menu include the Mulberry, with crumbled Italian sausage, pepperoni, Canadian bacon, and beef.
Also on the menu: buffalo chicken ranch, prosciutto and fig, shrimp Alfredo and a Tuscan vegan pizza.
The pizzeria will have a few tables, but mostly does pickup and delivery.
Russo’s pizza
Russo’s are franchises based in Houston created by chef Anthony Russo. The son of first-generation Italian immigrants, he grew up in New Jersey before the family moved to Texas and opened the first Russo’s.
Don and Katharina Haines are the Valley-based franchise owners
Don Haines grew up in New Jersey and had been looking for the New York-style pizza he grew up eating.
He found it in Texas.
“We said, ‘You know what, Fresno needs a piece of this,” he said.
The pair plan to open four more locations and have the rights to open the franchises in Fresno County. They expect most will be in Fresno and Clovis, but are open to other areas too.
The five locations are part of a five-year plan, but the couple doesn’t plan to take all five years to open them.
“The sooner the better,” he said. “Hopefully people will try it and enjoy it, and hopefully it will be the next thing in Fresno that everybody wants to see.”
This story was originally published May 18, 2021 at 8:00 AM with the headline "This New York-style pizzeria is planning to open 5 locations in Fresno, Clovis area."
