When Deluca’s Pizza opened its doors in Little Rock last month, it was a dream come true for those who had grown to love Anthony Valinoti’s sensational pies, as well as the charismatic owner behind them. Lines were long, tributes poured in, and media outlets elbowed for room on the evening news.
Valinoti had a quintessential upbringing in Brooklyn, New York, and found success on Wall Street as an adult. His start in the restaurant business was the stuff of opera; his parents died 48 hours apart, and in his grief, he walked away from everything he knew to immerse himself in something completely different — making pizza for a living.
“I don’t think I’ve ever done anything ‘right’ here,” he told AY About You in 2023. “I think I’ve learned through a series of incredibly bad mistakes. The only thing I was smart enough to realize was that the mistake I made wasn’t a mistake I was going to make again.”
He moved to Naples, where, by happenstance, he crossed paths with a woman who was a cooking instructor at the University of Naples. While living under her roof for a couple of months, she shared both recipes and techniques with the eager New Yorker, who started with zero cooking experience as raw dough that would rise into the star he is today.
Arkansas was not part of the original plan, of course. Valinoti envisioned a restaurant in California, but that deal fell through, leaving him frustrated. He went to Las Vegas to blow off some steam. There, the famous story goes, he met up with an acquaintance who told him, “If it wasn’t for my ex-wife, I would live in Hot Springs, Arkansas.”
For Valinoti, the statement was too preposterous not to explore. He flew straight to Arkansas, walked onto the streets of Hot Springs and immediately knew he was home.
“I came down the next day, and I fell in love with the city,” Valinoti told AY. “I told everyone I was moving here. They all thought I was crazy. My eyes saw everything I needed to see in one day. I went, ‘This is my place.’”
The original Deluca’s was launched in a shabby-cool space on the fringe of downtown where Valinoti put his vision and newfound culinary skills to the test. Despite having a product that was otherworldly compared to native pizza restaurants — from the style of pie to the fact of life that when the day’s dough is gone, it is gone — Deluca’s hit a nerve. Before long, the restaurant knocked down a wall to an adjoining space for more seating to keep up with demand. Valinoti moved the original to its current spot — the bustling 833 Central Ave., in 2018.
Valinoti himself is part of the appeal, emerging from the kitchen every night to greet guests, many of whom have evolved past being regulars to becoming fast friends.
“How do you take four walls and make them talk?” he said. “That was always the thing. I never really thought about it because it just kind of happened. [The restaurant] was always different from anything, really, you can find here in the South.
“I think people have kind of accepted that notion, that this is kind of fun. Maybe it’s crazy, how dark it is and how loud it is. Hey, I lived in Vegas for 13 years, you know? I like dark and loud. It may even match my personality. It definitely matches my personality.”
His convivial nature and fun-loving spirit have made Valinoti popular in the community, as well. In 2018, he was conferred the ultimate civilian honor of king of the World’s Shortest St Patrick’s Day Parade, for which he was paired with Rose Schweikhart, owner of the equally celebrated Superior Bathhouse Brewery. Publications throughout Arkansas have regularly proclaimed his product the Natural State’s best, and national media soon followed suit.
The crowning achievement came when Dave Portnoy, founder of Barstool Sports, reviewed Deluca’s for his viral One Bite Pizza Reviews. Portnoy called the pie “spectacular” and “the real deal” and scored it an amazing 8.7 out of 10. That doubled Deluca’s business overnight as pizza enthusiasts from across the U.S. and around the world poured in.
Now featuring Italian delicacies and, of all things, a cheeseburger that is gaining notoriety on par with the pizza, Valinoti remains grateful and somewhat shell-shocked by all that has come his way.
“This is not a business based on money. It’s a business based on being excellent, on providing people something that they absolutely love and want to speak about as highly as they do,” he told AY last year.
“How much more lucky can I be to have what I have? I am thrilled to open the doors up every day. It’s a great joy. This isn’t work. This is coming in and doing something fun every day.”
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