Vegas has combinations for pizza lovers

Max Jacobson

Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2002 | 8:30 a.m.

Pizza may have originated in Italy, but these days it is as American as apple pie. It's also become, similar to good barbecue, a pointedly regional food in this country.

Luckily for us, Las Vegas has most of the regional variations New York, Boston, Chicago and California, to name the big four. Transplants from those areas can enjoy the pizza they grew up with, or at least reasonable interpretations of them.

This story excludes many excellent pizzerias, such as California Pizza Kitchen, Sammy's Woodfired Pizzeria, the landmark Las Vegan, Metro Pizza, and all the major chains, such as Pizza Hut and Domino's. If we left out your favorite, please drop a note. We're always ready for more good pizza.

Here are four shining examples of where to eat great pizza in Las Vegas:

New York-style

Rocco's NY Italian Deli

The Big Apple is synonymous with pizza for many of us, and why not? The overwhelming majority of Italian-Americans arrived at Ellis Island and settled within shouting distance of New York. Perhaps no other Las Vegas pizzeria epitomizes that region more than Rocco's, a modest storefront where at least three countermen seem to be working at all times.

Owner Rocco Crea is from the Bronx, and his counter is always filled with slices of pizza, plus pinwheels, stromboli and calzones. His huge, thin-crusted, 16-inch pizzas yield eight big slices. Pizzas are cooked in a brick oven at approximately 550 degrees, and the dough is made from high-gluten wheat flour.

Crea is picky about his ingredients. He uses only Grande mozzarella from Wisconsin.

"I tasted other cheeses, and I hated them," he says.

He makes his pizza sauce from pure San Marzano tomatoes from Italy, adding salt, pepper, garlic, fresh parsley, fresh basil and grated Romano cheese. But his secret, and the secret to real New York-style pizza, he says, is "how the dough is kneaded."

Rocco's crust is crisp, never soggy, has never been frozen and has an abundance of yeast. This is a quintessential New York-style pizza, and all the countermen have accents to go with it.

Boston-style

Regina's, Roxy's

Bostonians love their pizza, and Las Vegas is home to two branches of Regina's, from Boston's North End. Regina's serves the quintessential Boston-style pizza, chewy, brick-oven slices.

George Maloof, who formerly owned the Fiesta and now owns the Palms, had the vision to bring Regina's to Las Vegas in the first place. Maloof has sold the Fiesta, but the casino still has Roxy's Pizzeria, which serves Regina's pizza recipes.

It's a cavernous room with long, Formica tables, and the pizza is still terrific. The other option is to hit the food court at the Palms, where the pizza stand is called Regina's. Both options are worthwhile.

The best pizza variety in both places is the simple cheese-and-tomato pizza. Its thin, chewy crust is topped with a dappled mat of aged, whole-milk mozzarella and a delicious, mildly sweet marinara.

This pizza is crisp around the edges and pliable enough to fold when eating, so the marinara sauce won't go dribbling down your chin.

Among the specialty pies is giambotta, a deluxe pizza topped with pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, peppers and onions. The traditional Margherita has a thicker crust topped with tomato sauce, fresh chopped basil, mozzarella and pecorino cheese.

Chicago-style

Rosati's

There aren't many places to get a proper Chicago deep-dish pizza. Rosati's, however, a small takeout place with no tables at all, does a credible job of the classic style.

This is the pie that made Chicago famous. The dough is dense and buttery, and there is a layer of cheese in between the dough and the toppings. The bottom of the crust is golden-brown pan and the sauce is full of chunked tomato, just as it is when you eat a pan pizza in Chicago.

Rosati's also makes good thin-crust pizza, and something called double-dough pizza, where there are two layers of the dough used to make the thin-crust pizza. However, the Chicago-style pizza is the real reason to visit here.

California-style

Spago, Lupo

A California-style pizza is baked in a wood-fired oven, has a thin crust, and a wide variety of exotic toppings never dreamed of in Italy, from the peanut sauce on a Thai chicken pizza, to the smoked salmon, capers and onions. These are the pizzas that put Wolfgang Puck's Spago on the food map.

A Spago pizza has a medium to thin crust, and at Lupo, the crust is thinner yet. Both restaurants use oak and cook their pies at close to 600 degrees.

"Pizza," Puck's Corporate Chef David Robins says, "is the ultimate American comfort food."

A Spago pizza is small, nine inches in diameter, and at Lupo, slightly bigger, 11 to 12 inches.

One excellent pizza at Lupo is topped with thinly sliced potatoes, shallots and fontina cheese. It sells for $9.50.

The famous smoked salmon pizza has fresh thyme in the dough, which is smeared with a thin layer of dill cream. Then it is topped with smoked salmon and onions, and daubed with osetra caviar.

Mamma mia. It's a long way from a New York-style slice.