Back in the 1970s, when Randy Tudisco went to introduce her boyfriend Steven Fenton to her Italian grandmother, she stuttered and what came out in the introduction was not Fenton.
It was Fentonelli.
Grandma approved of the relationship, even though the beau was not Italian, and the couple eventually married and had three kids.
Those kids — Courtney, Zachary and Tyler Fenton — drew on their parents’ love story when they renamed the northwest Tucson location of their popular downtown pizzeria.
As of Thursday, Feb. 9, Reilly Craft Pizza & Drink North at 7262 N. Oracle Road, the 18-month sister of its namesake location at 101 E. Pennington St., is Fentonelli’s Pizzeria & Bar.
“It was a cute family story,” said Tyler Fenton. “When it was time to decide a name, we went with that.”
Reilly Craft Pizza and Drink, 101 E. Pennington, has a slightly different menu than the newly-dubbed Fentonelli's on Tucson's northwest side.
Fenton, who runs the kitchens at both eateries as well as the siblings’ nearly-year-old restaurant Bata at 35 E. Toole Ave., said the rebranding started out simply as a few menu tweaks. But the more they tweaked, the more he and sister Courtney, who runs the front-of-house operations at the restaurants, realized they could end up confusing customers if the two Reilly menus didn’t match.
“We wanted to make sure there wasn’t some brand confusion,” Fenton said Tuesday, Feb. 7, as he and the staff prepared for Thursday’s relaunch. “The changes we wanted to make were large enough that we thought a full rebrand, concept tweak, was the right move. So we ran with it.”
Those changes include replacing the 12-inch pizzas with a 16-inch longer-bake pie, inspired by one Fenton experienced during a trip to Philadelphia.
“It was just really good and I got back from that trip and I started experimenting with how our dough behaved with the longer bake,” he explained. “It worked out well and it kind of gave us a new direction to go.”
Bata, which specializes in locally-sourced dishes, at 35 E. Toole Ave. is also owned by the Fenton family.
The larger pie holds up better for takeout, he said, and the takeout business at the northwest side restaurant is significantly higher than at the downtown location.
Fentonelli’s menu also includes build-your-own scratch-made pastas: diners can choose between rigatoni and spaghetti or gluten-free pasta and top it with their choice of marinara, vodka sauce, Sunday gravy (meat sauce), creamy alfredo and shrimp scampi. You also will find on the menu chicken parmesan, mozzarella sticks with marinara sauce, cheesy garlic bread, parmesan-truffle crinkle fries and, in a nod to Reilly’s, Brussels sprouts with hot sauce and pecan brittle.
The restaurant also has a full bar menu of cocktails, wine and imported and domestic beers.
Fentonelli’s is open for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and dinner from 4:30 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays; it’s closed on Mondays.
Follow the restaurant on Instagram at instagram.com/fentonellispizzeria.
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