Las Vegas Weekly

November 10, 2009 · 12:24 PM

Photo Gallery: Dan Marino opens pizza restaurant at Town Square

By Robin Leach

Dan Marino at Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza in Town Square.

Photo: Steve Spatafore/Fotovegas.net

Although he’s known for being one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history, Dan Marino confesses to a big weakness: He loves pizza! So much so that the Miami Dolphins Hall of Famer has opened 19 pizza parlors in Florida.

Now with his pizza partner Anthony Bruno, Dan’s opened his first outpost outside the Sunshine State right here in Las Vegas. Both men are proud that Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza is one of the first coal-fired pizza palaces in the Silver State.

Our contributing photographer Steve Spatafore joined me at the opening of the Town Square location for this great photo gallery of the first night. I asked both men to explain the difference between their pizza and everybody else’s in Las Vegas.

Said Anthony: “First of all, our oven. We use a real coal oven. There is no gas, no wood. It’s all coal. It burns very hot, and it gives it a nice charred flavor. It gives it a special flavor that you don’t get from wood or anything else. Everyone else uses wood mixed with gas. When you just use coal, it’s a lot of work and not easy, so a lot of people take the easy way out. Then all our ingredients are the best, from the flour to the cheese to the tomatoes.”

Dan explained to me that he and Anthony have been Florida friends for nearly a quarter of a century. “He just fell in love with the pizza,” Anthony said.

Dan, born in Pennsylvania of Italian parents, added: “He had the first and only restaurant. He invited me to get involved with them. I love the food, so I thought I could help out doing the concept he’d wanted to do for years. I’ve been a part of it from the second restaurant onward.

“So now we have 20 of them, and this is our first one here in Vegas. We both love Vegas and coming here, so this was a natural location. Vegas has a great cross-section of people, and if you are known here, you are pretty much known everywhere.”

Dan also partnered in a steak restaurant at the Hooters resort casino opposite the MGM Grand but said, “It will be going away and disappearing.”

Photo: Steve Spatafore/Fotovegas.net

Dan Marino and Anthony Bruno at Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza in Town Square.

I had to ask Dan if he had a favorite pizza on the menu. “My own,” he laughed. “The Marino pizza named after me. It has eggplant right on the pizza. My other favorite is the one with sausage and peppers. If I am going to do it, I want to load it up -- meatballs and all.”

To prove he’s still an expert with the quick release, Dan went outside the restaurant into the pedestrian streets of Town Square and threw some passes with his power arm -- with the same speed and accuracy that took the Dolphins into the playoffs many times. Dan was part of the NFL from 1983-1999 as was named one of America’s 100 Greatest Football Players.

He laughed with me: “It didn’t take pizza to get me ready for the game. Fortunately, I was just good.”

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

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