As far as local pizzerias go, Mister O1 is perhaps one of the most successful. (It even won New Times’ Reader’s Choice Best Pizza for five years in a row.) Starting as a single location in Miami Beach in 2014, it has expanded into a pizza empire.
It includes 10 locations across Miami-Dade, many more across Florida, and spots in Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas. And now, a location in Coral Gables. On June 30, the artisanal pizza spot opened on Alhambra Circle.
At the Gables location, the restaurant fires up the beloved menu its best known for. These include the “Star Luca,” which has a ricotta-filled pointed crust, and the “Coffee Paolo,” topped with gorgonzola, spicy salami, honey, and ground coffee.
From a tiny Miami Beach shop to a pizza empire
The pizzeria was founded by chef Renato Viola, originally under the name Visa-O1, in a nondescript office building just off Lincoln Road. Word of mouth quickly spread about Viola’s inventive pies that rivaled anything you could find in Italy. A native of Southern Italy, Viola relocated to Miami Beach on an O-1 visa, the inspiration for the original name, a work visa granted to those with “extraordinary ability or achievement.”…