Pizzeria Virtu - Old town Scottsdale VPN pizza

The Valley of the Sun, and all that is tasty therein
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Lunchbox
Posts: 48
Joined: Tue Sep 05, 2023 9:02 am
Location: Gilbert, AZ
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Pizzeria Virtu - Old town Scottsdale VPN pizza

Post by Lunchbox »

I've always said, you can throw a rock in this town in any direction and find good pizza...

Chef Gio lives in my neighborhood. I've had his pizza before... (I'm friends with his immediate neighbor and he'd bring pizza home and bring them next door when he was getting the restaurant ready. So never at the actual restaurant.) The pizza was good. I was never *overly* impressed. Chalk it up to the early days of his dough recipe and the travel time from Scottsdale to Gilbert, I guess.

Last night changed all that. I'm sad that I slept on this place for so long. It was awesome.

Started with the Pesca salad. Supposed to be peaches, grapes, candied walnuts, robiola (compressed ricotta), rocket (arugula), and peach brown butter vinaigrette. Peaches aren't in season so they subbed pears. Still a great, well-seasoned, well-balanced salad. I love when I can taste the seasoning in a salad and this kept me going back for more.
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Next we ordered some pizzas to share. First up was the Milano: stracchino, pancetta affumicata, caramelized onion, chestnut honey.
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Then the Salsiccia: sweet and spicy sausage, rapini pesto, caciocavallo cheese, and tomato confit.
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I loved them both. But I did have a favorite. The Milano was good, great balance of sweetness of the onions and honey with the sharpness of the cheese. But that Salsiccia was so damn good. I usually shy away from pestos because they're usually way out of whack with one dominant flavor (usually garlic) but dammit if this wasn't perfect. And the sweetness from the tomatoes and heat from the sausage cut through so well. Everything on this pizza had a job to do and they did it well. And his dough recipe is probably one of the best I've had in the valley. Some of them get so chewy. This had just enough. And the cook was perfect. Just the right amount of char.

I'd love to go back and try some of the pasta menu. I've had them at his other restaurants and they're always top shelf.

Pizzería Virtu
6952 E Main St.
Scottsdale, AZ 85251
https://pizzeriavirtu.com/
(480) 663-9797
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Lunchbox
Posts: 48
Joined: Tue Sep 05, 2023 9:02 am
Location: Gilbert, AZ
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Re: Pizzeria Virtu - Old town Scottsdale VPN pizza

Post by Lunchbox »

Oh yeah. Gio sent out desserts. It was me and my biz partner and we both looked at each other like "how are we going to eat this" when this giant platter hit the table.
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The two standouts for me were the olive oil cake...
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And the nutella budino. I'm a sucker for budinos (puddings) in general, but this was a close second to Charleen @FnB's butterscotch pudding. #IYKYK
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It was certainly chocolatey without being overly chocolatey... It had this salty, crispy, crunchy topping that had a little bite that just sent it over the edge. We managed to eat a bunch but each brought home a box to our wives who were both very happy to receive them.

And then because we were celebrating a win, we had a digestive of Nonino amaro which if you haven't had it, I much recommend.
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Remember: #AlwaysOrderDessert
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Nightbloom
Posts: 30
Joined: Wed Sep 06, 2023 7:16 pm
Location: Scottsdale, AZ

Re: Pizzeria Virtu - Old town Scottsdale VPN pizza

Post by Nightbloom »

I haven't been since they first opened and they're less than a mile away, so shame on me. But, they just started lunch service a few weeks ago and now it's back on my radar. Good indie lunch spots versitile [read: safe] enough for work meetings are hard to come by and this one just jumped to the top of my list.
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