Pizza Picassos: Italian family elevates its pies to an art form at Bambino’s

Since the Pota family took over Bambino’s East Coast Pizzeria, the valley’s East Coast transplants have been finding their way there, mostly by word of mouth.

The Pota family, led by co-owner Ralph Pota, took over the business at 2555 S. Durango Drive in October. Ralph was born in Naples, Italy, and moved to the United States as a child. Growing up in Elmont, N.Y, he began working in restaurants in the New York City area at age 10.

Making pizza “is all I really know,” Ralph said. “That’s all we knew in Italy, wood-fired (pizza). It’s completely different from your regular pizza.”

When he and his wife, Annamarie, moved here, Ralph said he knew he wanted to open a pizza business, using their family recipes and top-flight ingredients. He found the Bambino’s location and went ahead with the deal after ensuring the alkaline-heavy water was not a factor.

“That was the one thing I was worried about,” he said. “I thought there’d be a problem with the water. But with reverse osmosis” — he shrugged — “not a problem.”

It opened the first week of October, and he put in long hours, sometimes not getting home until midnight. Soon, he convinced his family members to move to Las Vegas and help run the business, including his son Anthony, his brother-in-law John Ahern and his brother Tony. Nephews also help around their school demands.

Like all good family-run eateries, this one is a cozy place with only a few tables. There are no fancy aprons with the logo splashed across them and no flashing signs. The specials of the day are tacked to an A-frame sign outside. When weather permits, the doors are thrown open, allowing the aroma of Italian cooking to waft on the air, pulling in devotees and the curious.

Mike Tomko of Summerlin said he found the eatery after his neighbor told him about it. He moved here from Long Island, N.Y., and said the pizza chains couldn’t compete for his palate when it came to Italian cooking. He called the Potas’ cooking “absolutely sinful.”

“Coming from the East Coast, that’s one thing I truly miss,” Tomko said. “… I love the mom-and-pop places. (You get) personal service, and they take such pride in their food.”

The secret to the sauce, Ralph said, is using tomatoes from the San Marzano area of Italy. Bambino’s got so many inquiries about its sauce, it began selling take-home containers so customers could claim bragging rights for their own cooking.

“We use high-end ingredients,” Ralph said. “Before I came to Vegas, I made sure it was all available before I made the move.”

One of the restaurant’s best-sellers is its Grandma Pizza, made with plum tomatoes. Another one to try? The Margherita.

“Margherita’s very big there, in Naples. That’s where it originated,” Ralph said.

The Potas may know Italian recipes, but they also knew a wood-fired brick oven would enhance the taste. They waited two months for the one they ordered to arrive. It was installed in early December.

“We were able to then enhance everything,” Ralph said. “When the wood-fired came in, we were able to put out the pizza like you’d get in Italy.”

They launched with no grand opening, no advertising and no fliers passed out to nearby neighborhoods. Bambino’s didn’t even put up a website, although its menu can be viewed at allmenus.com/nv/las-vegas (type in “Bambinos”).

But simple word-of-mouth advertising seems to have done much of the work. Even during non-lunch and non-dinner periods of the day, people were coming in.

“We appreciate that people have really been talking nice about us,” Ralph said. “Word of mouth alone has (grown) the store, just word of mouth.”

Bambino’s East Coast Pizzeria is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

For more information, call 702-242-2266.

To reach Summerlin Area View reporter Jan Hogan, email jhogan@viewnews.com or call 702-387-2949.