A Dallas restaurant specializing in Southern Italian food will soon make its Fort Worth debut: Partenope Ristorante, acclaimed for its authentic Neapolitan pizza, is taking over the former Fireside Pies space at 2949 Crockett St., in Artisan Circle.
Partenope comes from husband-and-wife duo Dino and Megan Santonicola. The Fort Worth location will be their third, following the flagship that opened in downtown Dallas in 2019 and a Richardson location that followed in 2023.
According to a Facebook post, it’s on the way soon.
“Partenope is coming to Fort Worth! Our third location is on the way and we can’t wait to share more soon,” the post read.
Partenope’s menu focuses on Naples cuisine, including pizzas, pastas, paninis, and appetizers – from a salumi board with meats, cheese, and bread to a grilled pork chop and cacio e pepe pasta.
But the star of the show at Partenope is their spot-on Neapolitan-style pizza.
Dino, a native of Italy who helped found the Cane Rosso chain, is an accomplished pizzaiolo, and Partenope boasts a Vera Pizza Napoletana (VPN) certification, signifying that it meets the standard of true Naples-style pizza.
Partenope was named #17 in the U.S. in 2021 by 50 Top Pizza, and was nominated for Best Neighborhood Restaurant in CultureMap’s 2022 Tastemaker Awards.
Partenope is moving into the Fort Worth space most recently occupied by Si Tapas, a short-lived Spanish tapas restaurant; before that was Fireside Pies, which moved to the Left Bank Center before closing in 2024.
The West 7th-area Artisan Circle development (formerly known as Crockett Row) is experiencing a bit of a restaurant resurgence, with the recent reopening of Terra Mediterranean and new sibling Mexican concept La Cabrona.
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Teresa Gubbins contributed to this story.