Mister O1 Pizza Opening Second Location in Grapevine

Mister O1 Extraordinary Pizza is a Miami-born concept by way of Italy. The founder, Renato Viola, moved to Miami from Southern Italy under the O-1 visa category, reserved only for those with "extraordinary artistic ability," which in his case was pizza-making.

Viola opened his first Mister O1 in 2014 in Miami and has been steadily growing it since, with 13 locations now. The first North Texas spot opened late last year at the Turtle Creek Shopping Village on Oak Lawn Avenue. On May 2, Mister O1 Pizza is opening a second location on Grapevine's Main Street.

We visited and wanted to cuddle with warm rosemary focaccia served in a brown paper bag. But the real visa-granting schtick here is a star-shaped pizza, and it was actually wonderful (we're usually skeptical of shticks, like salt-tossing and such).

For this particular shape (art?) of pizza, the outside edges are pinched together to form a five-pointed star, resulting in these little nooks of warm gooey ricotta cheese that you'll want to crawl inside of.
The dough here is prepared and rests a minimum of 72 hours before being served, and no sugar or preservatives are used in the sauces. There are 13-inch traditional and specialty pizzas, some using local ingredients, along with calzones, salads and burrata made at the home base in Miami and shipped here. (We asked and they couldn't find any comparable burrata made locally, and Cane Rosso likely isn't sharing.)

Service at Mister O1 leans high-end, but the space and ambiance are a bit more casual with a modern, clean design. They like to keep things simple with an eye toward authenticity. For instance, you can sip only Italian wines by the glass or order the popular Italian beer Peroni (no other beers or wines are offered). 

We tried a Star Beckham ($18) with ricotta, mozzarella, bacon, red onions and fresh tomatoes (added after the pizza is baked). We haven't been back since our initial visit but think about it often.

Mister O1, 129 S. Main St., No. 155, Grapevine. Sunday – Thursday, 11 a.m. – 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. – 11 p.m.