If you want to become wise, try doing something for 50 years.
“One thing I really appreciate, that I am more proud of than almost anything else, is the fact that when I first started, I was the first and only pizza place in town that sold pizza by the slice,” says Carmine Vento. “And nobody believed in it. ‘How are you gonna make money selling by the slice?’ Nobody knew I started in this business as a dishwasher at a place in New Jersey where they were selling 700 pizzas a day.”
Las Vegas didn’t understand pizza—real pizza—when Vento arrived in 1976 and opened Villa Pizza near Commercial Center on Sahara Avenue. Maybe nobody believed in it, but since Villa opened during a culinary strike that closed several hotel-casinos, “a lot of people were not working and home all day, and they needed a place to go,” he explains. And, of course, an inexpensive place to eat.
Villa exploded across the Valley by bringing what was likely the first authentic New York-style pizzeria to Vegas, and transformed into different kinds of restaurants always operated by Vento and his family. It exists currently as four restaurants under the moniker of Carmine’s Pizza Kitchen, and it’s celebrating the monumental anniversary by giving away $50,000 in cash prizes with a promotion running now through February 4. Customers will receive an automatic entry each time they purchase a large pizza at $20.99 or more for dine-in or takeout at any location (track them down at carminespizzakitchen.com). Winners for three prizes—$25,000 for first place—will be drawn February 5 as part of the 50th anniversary celebration at the Carmine’s at 1395 Raiders Way in Henderson.
Local dining and the pizza scene have changed in every way possible since Vento came to town, but he hasn’t. “I’m still from the old school. I refuse to change but I have an open mind,” he says. “I’ve tried a couple new things. When everybody started with wood-burning ovens for pizza, I tried it, but I couldn’t swallow it. I felt like I was selling someone else’s product. I went back to my old ovens.”
That’s where the wisdom comes in—you have to know when to refuse to change and when to use that open mind.
Vento’s restaurants are still run by family members. The sauce on the pies is still made from Napoli plum tomatoes, because he wants his customers to taste tomatoes, cheese and dough with every bite. “I don’t dilute it, I don’t use thickener. If you use garlic powder, you only taste garlic. Taste other pizzas and you’ll see—you can’t get the flavor of the dough, of the crust,” he says. “With my product, the tomatoes come up at you because it’s not full of spices, and you can actually taste the flavor in the crust.”
It’s hard to argue with the methods since, you know, Carmine’s has been around for 50 years. Vento, 77, has actually been in the pizza biz for 63 years. And he’s seen generations of family and friends who keep coming back for the familiar, communal experience we associate with a classic neighborhood pizzeria.
“I used to do taverns with slot machines and we had to go to the gaming commission and let them ask questions for our license,” Vento says. “Someone on the commission was talking about how her kids used to come for lunch when they were in high school, and the head of the commission, a very nice lady, raised her hand and said, ‘I was one of them.’ She was laughing and smiling, and it’s a great feeling to see that.
“We made friends with our customers. We treat them like family. I told my kids, if you want to go on with this business, just remember the key: Don’t give them a product you won’t eat yourself. And don’t change the product because someone says, ‘I like it this way.’ It’s your store, feed them what you know how to cook.”
