It’s Monday and this week our Business Spotlight feature is Famoso Neapolitan Pizzeria! This Italian inspired pizzeria is located at 5016 51 Avenue. We had the chance to sit down with owner, Ryan Curtis, to learn more about this business!

What is your business? 

 Famoso Pizzaria. 

 When did you open? 

 We opened in July of 2013. 

 What would you say makes your business unique? 

We’re pretty specialized in the type of pizza that we serve, obviously focusing on Neapolitan pizza, thin crust, and importing most of our ingredients from Italy. For example, Double Zero Flour from Naples, Campania tomatoes from the Campania region of Italy, just outside of Naples, which are grown in volcanic ash, fresh Fior di Latte Mozzarella, which is made fresh for us every week, locally of course. It cooks in our Italian Forno at 900 degrees for only about 90 seconds. So really thin-crust, softer style of pizza, rather than the typical North American style pizza. 

What are some products/services that you offer?  

Neapolitan Style Pizza, and we now have a different, thicker crust which is a more New York-Sicilian style pizza. Lots of craft beer, wine, cocktails, appetizers, salads, gelato—quite a few things here! 

Why did you choose Downtown Red Deer as the location for your business? 

We thought it would be a really great fit in the sense that we’re central to everywhere in the city. We’re 10-12 minutes from any given place. The nice part about where we are is, we do have free parking! For any perceived lack of parking, that’s something that unfortunately plagues Downtown, even though it’s not well founded, I think. 

What do you think makes Downtown vibrant? 

In terms of Red Deer, if your talking dining, I think we have the best kind of diverse dining scene. Occams Razor, Tribe, Dose—best coffee in town! —some really neat, unique offerings. I know we’re a franchise but we’re still pretty unique in the city. There’s just a lot of neat shops like Alta, Rob Rae’s, and products and services that you can’t find anywhere else in the city. I think it’s awesome, I mean, look at Downtown right now through the holidays with City Hall all lit up with the lights—it’s just beautiful! I think the sense of community that a lot of the businesses have, or at least I’ve experienced in our time here, it’s been great. It just makes us so unique.  

I love Downtown Red Deer because… of the community spirit down here and the DBA’s help and guidance to tie it all together. If I had to pick just one thing, I would say winter Downtown. City Hall lights, it’s just so nice when you are hanging out down here. Even though Red Deer Light’s the Night was a bit of a sad reminder of how much things have changed, it’s usually one of our busiest nights, the best of Red Deer is still on display and it’s a great way to show off our own area in Red Deer.

Famoso Neapolitan Pizzeria is open for curbside pick-up and delivery! Check out their website for their menu and their social media for updates on new menu items and specials!

Website: https://famoso.ca/locations/red-deer/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FamosoRedDeer/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/famosoreddeer/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/FamosoPizzeria