When he was 13, Rob Curcio washed dishes at his father’s New York-style pizzeria, Rocky’s Pizza, in Millbrook, New York.
Today, Rob is using the recipes of Rosario “Rocky” Curcio at OV Pizza and Pints, the former zpizza on La Canada at Naranja in Oro Valley.
“My life has come full circle,” said Rob, partner in the lunch and dinner business with his wife Michelle and her family. No wonder, then, that OV Pizza and Pints serves circular delights beneath the umbrella of Full Circle Holdings, Inc.
“It’s very cool,” Curcio said of the journey.
On April 2, the Curcios ended their 10-year franchise relationship with zpizza, and opened as OV Pizza and Pints in the same location. Why let go of the zpizza franchise?
“Freedom, primarily, to be able to change menu items, prices, dates of operation,” Curcio said. He now fully controls “what actually happens within the restaurant.” And, certainly, “we get to write ourselves a check every week,” he said. “We have a business that’s ours. It’s a big deal.”
After nearly 10 years, “we’re established now, and customers know us,” Curcio said. They keep coming back. “That’s what I love about Oro Valley.”
Customers come for lunch, when OV Pizza and Pints serves up calzones, sandwiches, salads and an $8 special featuring two slices and a drink. There are desserts, and a kids’ menu.
A New York-style pizza, large with fairly thin crust and raised edges sliced into big, foldable pieces, leads the dinner menu. Guests can choose among appetizers, pastas and flatbreads. Always, diners can build their own. And there are 17 beers on tap.
Pepperoni is the top-selling pizza in America, cheese at number two. That’s true as well at OV Pizza and Pints. Curcio has added a traditional margherita pizza, with fresh mozzarella, a chunkier tomato sauce, garlic, basil and extra-virgin olive oil, baked in a brick oven heated to 500 degrees.
Rob Curcio left Rocky’s Pizza and greater Poughkeepsie to study hotel and restaurant management at Northern Arizona University. The idea was “to go back to New York and grow my Dad’s business,” Rob said. Things changed. “I got enamored with the hotel business,” and worked in it for two years. Then he went back to Millbrook. His Mom became ill, and was lost to cancer at age 46. The idea of expanding the Rocky’s brand faded. Eventually, he wound up back in Arizona, near Michelle’s parents in Yuma.
Today, Michelle is a physical therapist working with young children in the Nogales and Sunnyside school districts. “It’s been very fulfilling for her,” he said. The Curcios have two daughters, Mikayla, 25, and Nicolette, 22. And they have a pizza and beer restaurant.
Business is “fantastic,” Curcio said. “Our numbers are as good if not better than before COVID.”
When COVID fully roared, in March 2020, Curcio remembers telling his employees “‘we’re closed for two weeks. Go home.’ It was crazy.”
When the restaurant reopened, “we shifted heavily from dine-in to take-out and delivery,” he said. It was “easy for us,” in comparison to other dine-in restaurants, because zpizza had the systems in place to serve remote customers. “Dishwashers ended up being delivery drivers, because there were no dishes to wash,” he said. “We were still busy, numbers-wise, not dine-in wise.”
When in-house dining resumed, “we started leveling out again,” he said. Tables and taps were six feet apart. Curcio remembers taking out the tape measure to comply with distancing rules.
“We learned to pivot quicker,” and “to be open to alternate methods of doing business,” he said.
During the pandemic, business “mellowed out,” Curcio said. “We were not as busy in the winter, and not as slow in the summer.” Today, winters are busier, summers a little slower than before. With heat, the dip is as much as 30%.
Zpizza got “plenty of help” to find its way through COVID. The Town of Oro Valley provided funds through OV SafeSteps to help pay the bills. With the town’s permission, Curcio opened an outdoor seating area. Federal pandemic aid kept people on the payroll.
Most of zpizza’s employees stayed with the Curcios during and after the pandemic, and through the transition to OV Pizza and Pints. There are 14 employees, working as cashiers, servers, cooks and dishwashers. Delivery drivers work for OV Delivery Express and Rich Castillo. “It works out fantastic,” Curcio said of that relationship.
Curcio works to keep his employees happy and engaged, while still accountable. “We’re all human,” he said. “This is a business, but it’s also my family’s business.” It’s not Rocky’s Pizza, but the recipes are the same. The circle remains, sliced but unbroken.
OV Pizza and Pints
11165 N. La Canada, #131
Oro Valley, Az., 85737
11 a.m-9 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 11-8 Sunday
520-329-8851
Ovpizzaandpints.com
