During our vacation in New Mexico, we were sort of burned out on green chile sauce, fried potatoes and sopapillas (although I don't know if you could EVER get burned out on sopapillas). We were talking with a waiter at a restaurant in Albuquerque one evening and I casually asked him where the best place to get a pizza in the city. He didn't even flinch. "Saggio's," he enthusiastically replied. I told him that we had been seeing Saggio's when we would pass by it on Central Avenue. "It's a little kitschy," he told us. "But if you can get past that, they have the best pizza in town." One night during our stay in Albuquerque, we ended up at Saggio's for dinner.
Michel "Michael" Casale and his wife Francesca were Italian immigrants who landed in New York and lived in the Bronx. Over time, Francesca gave birth to 3 boys - Frank, Nick and Tony - and the family had a small pizza place in the Bronx. Looking to get to a warmer part of the country, the family settled in Albuquerque in the mid-70's and it wasn't long afterward when they opened Saggio's, a pizza-by-the-slice establishment near the University of New Mexico.
Frank, Nick and Tony were the main players in Saggio's and it wasn't long before they had outgrown their little pizza shop. They found a building near the corner of Cornell and Central Ave. just across from the University of New Mexico. Over the years, the brothers added decorations, murals, statues and anything sort of off-kilter and funky to their restaurant making it a favorite of students and locals alike. Today, Tony's son Gian is the managing partner in the restaurant which opened a 2nd location in the fall of 2021 in the Coronado Center shopping mall on the city's northeast side.
We actually went to the Saggio's on the northeast side first because I'm not big on restaurants with a lot of noisy kitsch. But when we found that place was packed (it was a Saturday night), we decided to suck it up and go to the Cornell Dr. location back toward the center of Albuquerque. (see map)
After finding a parking spot just down Cornell Dr. SE, we walked up the street to the colorful building that housed Saggio's. Just inside the door was a life-sized statue of Babe Ruth, across the walkway was a life-sized statue of Muhammed Ali, and sort of tucked back into the corner was a life-sized statue of former Green Bay Packers quarterback Bart Starr. That one sort of puzzled me because while Babe Ruth and Muhammed Ali were thought of to be the best in their sports, Starr was a fine quarterback, but there were others - even in his day - who were better quarterbacks.
Among the first thing kitschy thing we encountered - other than the statues - was a red Mercedes with its top sheared off. It was a serving counter for desserts - named after the Saggio matriarch Francesca - with a glass case that held a few items. While most people might think it was ingenious, novel or cute, I just sort of shrugged my shoulders.
The dining area was a busy mix of plants including white columns with royal blue urns at the top filled with tropical plants. Large spider plants, a banana plant, and other plants were hanging or in pots throughout the dining area. Colorful lights, more kitschy items, and a ceiling mural hovered above the slat bench seats in the dining room.
The center piece of the dining area is a pop art mural which depicts celebrities and historical figures in a colorful mélange. The Beatles, Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe playing a guitar, The Three Stooges, John Wayne and The Supremes were all portrayed in the mural. It gave us something to look at while we passed the time after ordering our pizza.
Saggio's is counter service - counter ordering and counter pick-up - with the menu on the wall behind the front wall. In addition to pizza, Saggio's tag line says "Italian Scratch Kitchen" and they had a number of pasta dishes on the menu, as well as salads, sandwiches and calzones.
The thing I didn't like about Saggio's was that after we placed our order for food at the front counter, we had to go over to another counter in their bar area to order drinks. That's two separate charges that I had to deal with rather than being able to order everything at one place. My wife got a glass of chianti while I got a pint of the La Cumbre Elevated IPA.
My wife needed some greens and she ordered a side Caesar salad to start out. It was a basic romaine lettuce salad with croutons, shaved parmesan and some Italian seasoning sprinkled on top with a creamy Caesar dressing drizzled over the greens. My wife thought it was fine for what it was.
It was about 15 minutes after we ordered that our number was called for our pizza. We went with our usual Italian sausage, mushroom and pepperoni. We had a pretty big lunch earlier in the day and we weren't terribly hungry for dinner that night so we got a small thin crust. It wasn't as thin as we like, but it was hand-tossed and the crust held up well with all the toppings. Curiously, the sausage was shaved like they had shaved it off a spit like you would shave lamb meat for a gyro. But we could tell the sausage had a spicy kick. The mushrooms were fresh and earthy, and the pepperoni slices had a nice salty and spicy flavor.
Was it a good pizza? Sure, it was good. The tangy tomato sauce and the mozzarella cheese coagulated well together with the toppings. It was a filling pizza and we were glad we only got a small.
While Saggio's came highly recommended by locals we talked with, it's evident that it was another instance of local bias where you like the pizza that you grew up with. While Saggio's pizza was good, it didn't give us a jolt like we get with some of our favorite tavern-style pizzas in Chicago. Everything about the pizza was fresh and it had good flavor. I wouldn't call it a Top Ten pizza, but for Albuquerque I'm sure it was fine. When we travel, we like to go where the locals go and it's wholly evident the locals go to Saggio's for their pizza. Just remember - I warned you about the kitsch.
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