Pizza is taking over Las Vegas

Las Vegas is going through an Italian Renaissance —at least when it comes to pizza.

The owner of downtown’s Pizza Rock has opened a second store by the same name in Green Valley Ranch Resort, and is opening an Italian restaurant called Little Tony’s in Palace Station.

“We wanted to prove to Vegas that if we can do it in downtown, we can do it anywhere,” said Tony Gemignani, who owns a dozen restaurants in the Las Vegas market and in California.

Gemignani also opened a recent Slice House pizzeria in Green Valley Ranch — joining his three other Slice House locations in California, including one at the San Francisco Giants’ AT&T Park.

Slice House and Pizza Rock don’t compete against each other at Green Valley Ranch, Gemignani said, because Slice House is a grab-and-go concept while Pizza Rock is a sit-down restaurant.

Gemignani said costs for the recent expansions at the Station Casinos properties run in the millions of dollars and are financed by three sources — Station Casinos, his investors and his own funding.

“There’s a renaissance in Las Vegas when it comes to the pizza industry,” he said. “I felt the areas we’re looking definitely needed a high-end, high-quality pizza concept.”

Gemignani said he plans future pizzerias in Summerlin and on the Strip.

Gemignani’s pizzeria openings were part of a recent mini-spree of new pizzeria offerings:

— Pizza Forte at the Sunset Station food court. The Ferraro family, which owns Ferraro’s Italian Restaurant & Wine Bar, plans to open another 10 pizzerias in the next 18-24 months. Its next location is at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas later this spring.

— Blaze Fast-Fire’d Pizza, a pizzeria concept that first opened in Irvine, Calif. in 2012 and operates in 15 states, is opening its first Nevada location in Henderson’s Horizon Pointe Shopping Center in May. The co-founders of Wetzel’s Pretzels, Elise and Rick Wetzel, founded Blaze Pizza and investors include LeBron James, Maria Shriver, Boston Red Sox co-owner Tom Werner and movie producer John Davis.

— DiFara’s Pizza, a legendary pizzeria from Brooklyn, in Caesars Palace’s renovated Forum Food Court. The owners of Dom DeMarco’s pizzeria in the western suburbs opened the DiFara’s on the Strip three months ago.

Jake Leslie, one of four partners who own Radio City Pizza on Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas, said the market can absorb the pizzeria concepts.

“It will shake itself out. There have been plenty of pizza concepts. Some of them are still here. Some have evolved. And some have gone,” Leslie said.

Contact reporter Alan Snel at asnel@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5273. Follow him on Twitter: @BicycleManSnel