Photo by Kathy Tran
THE ELMWOOD COMMERCIAL CENTER ON EDGEFIELD HAS ITS COMPLICATIONS.
Sitting amid the ongoing West Oak Cliff Area Plan and poised for renovations like new sidewalks and lighting, it brims with big potential while encapsulating the small-town feel that makes people love Oak Cliff.
Husband-and-wife entrepreneurs David Rice and Roxy Chairez say they feel lucky to be planted on South Edgefield with their second Oak Cliff restaurant.
Their cozy Bocce Italian Kitchen served comfort food on West Davis at Madison in the Bishop Arts District for about 4.5 years.
With Roselli’s Pizza Fritta, they dipped into Rice’s family heritage and put a spin on Neapolitan street food to create a concept they are working to expand with beer-and-wine sales and grab-and-go dinner options.
The restaurant serves 16-inch New York-style pizzas that are hand-tossed and will serve 3-4 people. But it was Dave’s idea to make pizza fritta as well. Rice uses a pan to fry the dough in hot oil before topping it with sauce, cheese and fixin’s and finishing it in the oven.
“He researched it, and he calls it ‘the pizza of the people,’” Chairez says.
The result is a 10-inch personal pizza that can be customized or ordered with the same specialty toppings as the larger pies. Those concoctions include the Elmwood pizza, with brisket, giardiniera and caramelized onions, or the Sicilian, with eggplant, bell peppers and feta.
The wings are a star here, with not a buffalo in sight. Spicy garlic parm and lemon scampi wings are crispy and well-seasoned.
Pasta and subs like meatball and chicken parm round out the menu, along with appetizers like fried artichoke hearts, a holdover from Bocce.
The restaurant is BYOB, but Rice and Chairez are applying for a Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission License to sell beer and wine by-the-drink and to-go as a complement to their planned grab-and-go selection of pastas, sauces and salads.
Henderson Elementary is within 250 feet of the restaurant, prohibit-ing alcohol sales, so they are asking for specific permission from the state of Texas.
Many neighbors in the area have said they want beer and wine sales to be allowed in downtown Elmwood as a way to invigorate the area, according to the West Oak Cliff Area Plan, which remains otherwise very contentious in our neighborhood.
Chairez, 36, and Rice, 43, met at Ten Bells Tavern about 10 years ago, when he was still chef of Whitehall Exchange. They now have three daughters.
Chairez, who is from Oak Cliff orig-inally and is a math teacher at Molina High School, handles much of the business side of the restaurant. Rice is from Michigan, but his mom is Italian American from Chicago. Roselli was her maiden name, and it was Chairez’s idea to use it in the restaurant’s name as a tribute to Rice’s grandmother, to whom he was devoted.
Chairez and Rice live in the South Edgefield neighborhood, and after four years in Bishop Arts, decided they weren’t done with Oak Cliff. They say they feel right at home in Elmwood.
“It’s the perfect place for us,” she says.
