Buono’s Pizza, a southwest Mesa pizzeria known for its authentic New York-style pies, has closed after 30 years in a strip mall on the southwest corner of Dobson and Guadalupe.
The pizzeria was founded in 1988 by then-25-year-old Vic Buono, a New York native who sold his restaurant to an employee 10 years later.
After yet another change in ownership last year, however, the award-winning Buono’s began receiving one-star Yelp reviews.
But there is some good news for hungry East Valley residents looking for a New York-style slice.
Buono returned to the restaurant scene in 2003, buying Islands Pizza in Gilbert and renaming it Nicantoni’s Pizza (a combination of his two kids’ names, Dominic and Toni).
In 2016, he moved Nicantoni’s to the JD’s Homestead center on Gilbert Road about halfway between Elliot and Warner.
The menu not only offers the pizza Buono learned working at pizzerias in New York, but also pasta and other Italian entrees.
