Pizza Bruno: Pizza Magnet

Bruno Zacchini can usually be found stationed in the lobby of his eponymous “pizza forward” eatery, Pizza Bruno, along with ravenous fans waiting to pick up their pies. 

“We’re pushed to the max here, space-wise,” he says of his tiny restaurant. The menu consists of pizza, meatballs and octopus (all cooked in a very hot wood-fueled oven), along with a couple of salads. With his roots in Cask & Larder, Oblivion Taproom and critically acclaimed Third Wave in New Smyrna Beach, Zacchini is well-known to the Orlando culinary community, as evidenced by the local kitchen celebs who pop in after their shifts for craft beers and pies.

Zacchini moved into the former Soprano’s Pizzeria location on Curry Ford Road near Conway Road in July 2016, and his choice of pizza is a selfish one. “Nobody was doing it how I wanted to do it,” says Zacchini, referring to a classic Neapolitan soft-dough pizza quite unlike the cracker-hard, foldable slice most of us know. Flour, crushed plum tomatoes, fresh cheese—that’s it, for a pizza subtle in taste and a great base for a spectrum of toppings including hot soppressata, clams or wood fired pineapple. pizzabrunofl.com

—J.H.