The Lake Highlands Town Center is home to one of the 20 top pizzerias in the U.S, at least as far as Pizza Today is concerned.
Photo by Kathy Tran.
In late December, the margarita-filled trade publication released its annual report on the top 20 pizzerias in the country. Mixed in among a predictably coastal roster, Pizza Today’s staff ranked Cane Rosso No.17, making it the lone Texas-based concept to land a spot on the list.
In a short, two-sentence description, Cane Rosso was praised for “chewy crusts, classic Italian toppings, and a fun menu featuring pies with clever names.” December’s pizza special, dubbed the “Midnight in Modena,” came topped with balsamic cherries, prosciutto and balsamic reduction.
Operating under the umbrella of the wider PILF Restaurant Group, Cane Rosso has nine locations across North Texas, including the original Deep Ellum restaurant and the Lake Highlands Town Center location. The brand first burst onto the scene in 2009 as a mobile pizza oven by sales exec turned pizzaiolo Jay Jerrier.
Jerrier studied Neapolitan-style pizza making with the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana after experimenting with a backyard pizza oven. The resulting brand and pizza were praised by Pizza Today in the list for its “authentic Neapolitan pizza from wood-fired ovens” made with imported Italian 00 flour and hand-pulled mozzarella.
The Lake Highlands location opened in summer 2024 after much anticipation. That fall, Jerrier told the Advocate he saw it as a place for neighbors.
“I think our strength is being a neighborhood restaurant. It’s someplace that’s reliable, that we hope you can go to a couple times a month, if not a couple times a week. Now that our menu has enough variety on it, I think it’s a spot where you can come and sit in the bar by yourself, you can sit on a patio, you can push tables together, and it really is the kind of neighborhood spot that’s kind of always how we’ve always envisioned it.”