Oregano's gets ready to open a restaurant in Mesa, and the lines are already forming
By CRYSTAL PETROCELLI
Get Out

The former Gallagher’s on the northwest corner of Dobson Road and Southern Avenue in Mesa has slowly transformed into a red-and-green-trimmed Oregano’s Pizza Bistro, but with much less fanfare than one would expect for a restaurant whose other Valley locations are popular enough to chalk up wait times in excess of two hours.

“We’ve been very, very blessed with Arizona’s response to this pizza,” says Oregano’s owner Mark Russell, who will have seven Arizona restaurants with the April 5 opening of his Mesa bistro. (An eighth location is expected in Gilbert later this year.)

" I tell you, it’s busier than it was last year, and that’s why we have to open this (new location),’’ Russell says. ‘‘People come here at 10:30 in the morning and we have to stay open until 11 o’clock at night and it’s still not enough.”

The new restaurant is expected to be such a big draw that Tom Verploegen, executive director of the Mesa Town Center, an organization that promotes downtown development, is hoping to see another in the future.

“I’ve tried to recruit (Russell) before in terms of downtown, so we’d obviously like him to do another one downtown,” Verploegen says.
But apparently not everyone in Mesa is lining up to put their name on the waiting list.

Former Gallagher’s patrons who don’t recognize Oregano’s signature colors and antique decor have stopped by to ask what the restaurant is turning into.

Just blocks away, Mesa Community College students and Fiesta Mall shoppers look bewildered when asked about the impending opening.

“I’ve heard of oregano. What is Oregano’s?” asks Jean Bye, who drove from her Chandler home to visit the Mesa mall.

“Where is it?” asks Corbie Stimely, another shopper from Chandler, when asked if she plans to eat at Oregano’s.

“It sounds familiar,” she says, “but I’ve never been there.”

Tried and tested

Russell, who was born in Chicago and grew up around his family’s restaurants, was a flight attendant for seven years before opening his first Oregano's in 1993 on Scottsdale Road.

“I always wanted to be in the restaurant business,” says Russell, 43, who used his job benefits to fly from Phoenix to Chicago every two weeks to test his father’s pizza recipes on 20 of his friends and family.

“That (taste testing) took about two years because it was hard to do, to get everyone — all 20 of these people — to say, ‘This is the pizza right here,’ ” Russell says with a laugh.

“We got to 14 or 15 and we’re like, ‘It ain’t good enough.’ ”

But Russell’s dedication to creating a crowd-pleasing product has paid off.
“It’s hard to get in here,” says Diane Remmert of Mesa, who’s halfway into a 30-minute wait at the Tempe Oregano’s on a recent Friday afternoon.
“The pizzookie’s really good!” she adds.

A few chairs down from Remmert in the Oregano's parking lot is Christy Gurley of Gilbert, who says there is always a long wait, but she stops by every other month anyway.

“The food’s always good . . . and the pizzookie!” Gurley says with an enthusiasm only those who have tried the delicious dessert can appreciate.

The raves are partly a result of Oregano's cooking its pies in old-fashioned stone deck ovens, hand-streching dough, pressing fresh sausage, using only Wisconsin cheeses, marinating sauces and making salad dressings in-house.

Joel Barnes, visiting the Valley from Alabama, still remembers the 45-minute wait he had a year ago at the Tempe location. But he remembers the meatball sandwich, too.

“I think it’s going to be about the same wait now, but it’s worth it. It’s great food,” Barnes says.

Building character

Russell puts a lot of time and thought into his eclectic interiors, which feature items the owner picked up from estate sales and antique shops.
“I can spend two weeks in Chicago going through places and just looking. . . . I love it, it’s my peace,” Russell says of the four dusty weeks he typically spends looking for just the right decor.

As a result, the Mesa restaurant is a blizzard of bizarre memorabilia and cultural artifacts. Wooden water skis, an old Zenith AM/FM radio, Saturday Evening Post covers from the 1950s, a pink neon “Pizza Time” clock and a framed Milwaukee High School diploma are just the tip of the eye-candy iceberg.

“I like the old, I like the character,” Russell says. “That’s what we try to build in these restaurants. Build the character, people want to see something other than these stamp-outs.

“Not that food is bad coming out of a strip mall. I think that Oregano’s just wanted to take it to the next level.”

Oregano’s locations

• 523 W. University Drive, Tempe
• 3622 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale
• 7515 E. Shea Blvd., Scottsdale
• 1008 E. Camelback Road, Phoenix
• 605 Riordan Road, Flagstaff
• 4900 E. Speedway Blvd., Tucson
• 1130 S. Dobson Road, Mesa (opens April 5)
• Gilbert Road and Vaughn Avenue, Gilbert (opens late 2005)

Never been to an Oregano’s? Here are four must-tries:

• Many restaurants have tried to copy the righteous Original Pizza Cookie ($4.69) — a skillet of half-baked cookie dough (chocolate chip or white chocolate macadamia nut) topped with scoops of vanilla bean ice cream. All have failed.

• The thin-crust barbecue chicken pizza ($15.49-$18.99) is slathered in a slightly spicy barbecue sauce, then sprinkled with feta and cheddar cheeses, red onions, scallions, diced tomatoes and shredded chicken. It’s delicious.

• The big, meaty, heavily sauced chicken wings are finger-licking good.

• They make the best fat-free dressing I’ve found anywhere. Try the roasted red pepper Italian and tell me I’m wrong.