100 Favorite Dishes, No. 38: We'll Never Forget the Cannoli at Pietro's

Leading up to September's Best of Dallas® 2017 issue, we're sharing (in no particular order) our 100 Favorite Dishes, the Dallas entrées, appetizers and desserts that really stuck with us this year. Let’s raise a glass, one more time, to Pietro’s, the Italian institution that served spaghetti, veal parmesan and...

By Brian Reinhart

August 15, 2017

What's more romantic than a cozy family-owned Italian spot? Nick Rallo

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Leading up to September's Best of Dallas® 2017 issue, we're sharing (in no particular order) our 100 Favorite Dishes, the Dallas entrées, appetizers and desserts that really stuck with us this year.

Let’s raise a glass, one more time, to Pietro’s, the Italian institution that served spaghetti, veal Parmesan and gloriously cheesy manicotti to Greenville Avenue crowds for 50 years. In the final weeks of the restaurant's run, as Pietro Eustachio greeted longtime customers who made the pilgrimage from as far away as Oklahoma, the line snaked out the door and the dining rooms were packed with fans.

But this wasn’t just nostalgia for an older Dallas. Pietro’s served some fantastic Italian food, including the best cannoli in the city. Its crisp pastry crust held up but still felt as fresh and light as could be; the cream inside, so generous it squirted out the ends with each bite, was perfectly rich. Eating it, we felt like kids again.

Oh, and the cannoli were huge.

It speaks to the comfort of Pietro’s cannoli that so many people ordered it, even though all the appetizers and main portions were gigantic. Now, alas, it’s time to find out if any other restaurant can equal this late, beloved classic.

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Brian Reinhart has been the Dallas Observer's food critic since spring 2016. In addition, he writes baseball analysis for the Hardball Times and covers classical music for the Observer and MusicWeb International.

Contact: Brian Reinhart

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