For Cicero’s owner Rik Jones, having his pizzeria featured on “Check Please! Bay Area” in November represents the culmination of many years of dedication to keeping the restaurant begun by his grandfather Nunzio and his great uncle alive and thriving.
The pizzeria, originally founded in 1961 as Pee-Wee’s in Cupertino, was named for a guy in Niagara Falls, NY, where Jones grew up. Using his mother’s recipe from Sicily, Pee Wee established his first pizzeria in Niagara Falls, then moved to Cupertino, where he opened a shop that Jones’ grandfather subsequently purchased and ran from 1968 to 2001. Jones and his cousin Bob resurrected the restaurant after Nunzio passed away and have operated it in its current location on Bollinger Avenue in San Jose, near the Cupertino border, since 2002.
Jones, who worked for Nunzio while in college, says the key to what makes Cicero’s pizzas special revolves around the thin crust, baked in a pan with oil for a crispy texture that defies folding but delivers a satisfying fried crunch. Beyond the crust, Cicero’s layers on the flavor with a special sauce.
“We don’t use off the shelf cans of tomato sauce,” says Jones. “We make our own spice mixture. It has some sweetness to it, and it’s a very unique and great taste.”
Adding to that great taste is the cheese, says Jones. “My favorite pizza is probably just a plain old cheese pizza. I like cheese. That’s how you can really tell whether a pizza is any good or not. Toppings can vary. The pizza itself—cheese—you’re always gonna know.”
While the history of the place speaks for itself, with family photos going back generations, Jones hopes that the vibe newcomers get when they walk in the door is one of an old-fashioned pizzeria.
“We have photos on the wall of many of our customers, including Steve Wozniak, whose family has been coming here long before he started Apple Computers,” he says. “But we have a lot of what we call Cicero’s babies, and they’re either customers who met here or their first date was here; they end up getting married and having children. We have a number of employees who’ve met here and have had children, so we got a lot of little Cicero’s babies out there. We have great history. But the real reason people come here is ’cause they know they’re gonna get a great pizza every single time.”
The restaurant’s tagline is “The Pizza with the Secret,” and don’t ask Jones to share. “If I told you,” he says, “It wouldn’t be a secret.”
For fans of sushi, Palo Alto’s Sushi Roku offers a special lunch menu including a “Sushi Fix,” with tuna, salmon, yellowtail, sea bream and shrimp, plus a choice of spicy tuna or baked crab roll, for $28. There’s classic sushi, hakata ramen, donburi (chicken, beef or salmon) served over rice, and both pork belly and wagyu fried rice.
Lots of buzz about Sekoya in Palo Alto for items like grilled quail with pickled mushrooms, chicken liver mousse with banana bread donuts and cherry compote, and double fried teriyaki mushrooms. The restaurant, by Steve Ugur of Pausa Bar & Cookery in San Mateo, is open for dinner only.
Gardenia Los Gatos recently updated its dinner menu to include a special bread board with d’Isigny butters; burrata and winter chicories with macerated Asian pear and basil oil; crispy Brussels sprouts with pickled beets; Dungeness crab beignets; Colorado lamb with parsnip puree; stuffed pan-roasted cabbage with leeks, grains and honeynut squash; and braised rabbit with casarecce pasta atop celery root, ricotta, peas and cognac cream.
The Tasting House in Los Gatos has added some new items to The Bistro menu, including beet salad, pumpkin pastiche, Korean fried chicken, crustacean risotto and beef carpaccio with capers and parm. Chef Julian Silvera continues to add to his repertoire with the special Chef’s Tasting Menu.
Los Gatos entrepreneur Yvonne Khananis says her much-anticipated Heritage Chophouse on Santa Cruz Avenue, above the Polenteria, is aiming for a March opening date.
