Chef Christian Petroni (left) and owner Jay Jerrier. Courtesy of Cane Rosso.
Cane Rosso is part of PILF Restaurant Group, which also owns Zoli’s New York Pizza and Thunderbird Pies and is known for bringing authentic Neapolitan, New York and Detroit-style pizzas to locations across the Metroplex. Their newest site will be at the Lake Highlands Town Center, and they’ve enlisted Bronx native Christian Petroni to ensure it’s a rousing success.
“It was probably about ten years ago that a young, gen-u-ine Italian American chef came across my radar screen, seeing him cook some delicious food up in the Northeast,” says Jay Jerrier, owner of Cane Rosso. “I was obsessed with him, his restaurants, and his style of cooking because it’s a real hardcore New York, Italian American, Bronx-born way of putting together dishes. We’ve gone back and forth about working together for the past decade, and I’ve watched him all over the Food Network with Bobby Flay and winning The Next Food Network Star. Finally, the planets aligned when Christian told me that he was anxious to get back into the restaurant business.”
In 2020, Petroni diverted his attention to developing his own line of products, appearing frequently on television and attracting a social media following. His new cookbook, Parm to Table, is due out later this year.
“Authenticity is my superpower,” says Petroni, “and the one thing in my life that had been missing — the thing that I was really yearning for — was the action of a restaurant. The act of hospitality, making somebody’s day — I love it.”
Petroni, who spent many youthful summers cooking with his family on the island of Ponza near Naples, will be known as Cane Rosso’s new Chief Culinary “Commandante.” He says he weighed his decision carefully before jumping back into the restaurant business.
“I’ve known Jay for many years now, and I saw such great potential in coming down to Dallas, Texas, to bring what I do, from my New York food upbringing, to my time in Ponza or to my mother cooking for me at home, to this incredible community that my friend Jay has built,” says Petroni. “It was honestly a no-brainer to join.”
The Lake Highlands location at Walnut Hill and Skillman will take over the former Taco Diner space, and Jerrier is aiming for a grand opening in April of 2024. Until then, you may visit Cane Rosso in Dallas, Carrollton, Frisco, Arlington and Fort Worth. The closest two for Lake Highlands neighbors are at 7328 Gaston near White Rock Lake and 6959 Arapaho near Hillcrest.
Courtesy of Cane Rosso.
