Where’s Fort Worth’s best brunch now? It might be in a pizza restaurant

Bud Kennedy
·3 min read

Some of our best brunch restaurants are pizzerias.

It started in Fort Worth with Cane Rosso, maybe known as much for weekend biscuits, cinnamon rolls and $2 mimosas as for Neapolitan-style pizzas.

Olivella’s Pizza and Wine is the newest pizzeria-turned-bruncheria.

The west side pizzeria, named last year as Star-Telegram readers’ favorite, now opens at 11 a.m. weekends to serve breakfast pizzas, paninis, an Italian sausage-and-mozzarella burrito and blue-corn waffles.

Blue-corn waffles with fruit and a breakfast pizza at Olivella’s in Fort Worth July 16, 2023.
Blue-corn waffles with fruit and a breakfast pizza at Olivella’s in Fort Worth July 16, 2023.

The waffles ($15, $$18 with a side of eggs) might be one of the city’s best brunch dishes. Two crisp blue-corn waffles come topped with peaches and strawberries.

Olivella’s, 4910 Camp Bowie Blvd., moved to the Arlington Heights neighborhood in 2020 after four years in Ridglea. It expanded a former doughnut shop into a full dining room and wine bar.

Owner Charlie Green said the location is now his busiest since the pizzerias started 17 years ago near SMU.

The regular menu offers a choice of Neapolitan-style pizzas or an extra-thin, oval “Roman-style.”

The brunch menu offers a ham-sausage-and-eggs pizza or a Benedict-style version with ham, arugula and hollandaise.

It’s open nightly for dinner and Friday through Sunday for lunch or brunch; 817-439-7676, olivellas.com.

The giant cinnamon roll at Zoli’s, also served at Cane Rosso, July 16, 2023.
The giant cinnamon roll at Zoli’s, also served at Cane Rosso, July 16, 2023.

Cane Rosso, Zoli’s team at brunch

Cane Rosso’s blockbuster brunch menu of chicken biscuits, Italian sausage waffles, breakfast pizzas and the ham-mozzarella-and-bacon-marmalade “Feel Like Bacon Love” pizza is back at all locations.

And it’s easier now to get a table, because basically the same brunch menu is also served at New York cousin Zoli’s Pizza, 3501 Hulen St.

The difference is the crust: Neapolitan-style at Cane Rosso or New York-style at Zoli’s.

Cane Rosso also offers to substitute plant-based sausage and/or vegan cheese. On the other hand, Zoli’s also has burgers. Both serve “gluten-friendly” pizza options.

The showpiece at both restaurants is a 2-inch-tall cinnamon roll loaded with cinnamon flavor beneath an icing glaze. It’s $13, but big enough for the table to share.

“DFW is a brunch town and our staff likes to get creative,” owner Jay Jerrier wrote in a message.

Cane Rosso opens weekends at 10 a.m. at 815 W. Magnolia Ave., Fort Worth, 817-922-9222, and at 11 a.m. at 200 N. East St., Arlington, 817-533-3120; canerosso.com.

Zoli’s opens weekends at 10 a.m.; 817-402-0050, zolispizza.com.

A giant blueberry pancake with a cinnamon roll at Pie Tap in Fort Worth July 16, 2023.
A giant blueberry pancake with a cinnamon roll at Pie Tap in Fort Worth July 16, 2023.

More brunches

▪ The new Pie Tap Pizza Workshop + Bar, 1301 W. Magnolia Ave., opens at 10 a.m. weekends.

It serves a choice of four breakfast pizzas, chicken biscuits, spinach-goat-cheese omelets, a giant blueberry pancake and cinnamon rolls; 682-707-8888, pie-tap.com.

▪ Fireside Pies opens at 10 a,m, weekends at 628 Harrold St., Fort Worth, and at 11 a.m. at 1285 S. Main St., Grapevine.

Along with wood-fired pizzas, Fireside’s menu has more of a Tex-Mex twist with chorizo quesadillas or frittatas and pizzas with serrano honey.

Fireside also offers plant-based sausage as a substitute along with gluten-free or cauliflower crust; 817-769-3590, Fort Worth, or 817-416-1285, Grapevine; firesidepies.com.