Damn good pizza awaits at new Irving pizza joint

I found some damn good pizza at a new place opening in Las Colinas today. From-scratch kitchen. An 800° oven, Italian-milled 00 flour, dough rested 24 hours. Nice ink on the chef, too.

Ninety seconds is all it took to turn out the pies shown above.

New-to-Texas Persona Pizza specializes in pizzas that are chewy, crusty hybrids between floppy, saucy, VPN-style pies and the kind of thin-crusted, sturdy, foldable beauties you find in pie joints across Northern California, which is where founder and exec chef Glenn Cybulski hails.

“We make everything here from scratch every day,” says Cybulski, who learned his pie craft in Naples, Italy, where he was also once crowned “World Pizza Champion” at the Citta Di Napoli world pizza competition. Pies start at an affordable $8 for a classic Margherita (San Marzana tomato sauce, good mozzarella, fresh basil, EVOO), one of the best buys in the city.

“A simple pizza here costs $8,” says Cybulski, “but our goal is to have you say it’s the best pizza you’ve ever had in your life, regardless of price.”

Two additional Persona Pizzas are in development in the Dallas area.

8704 Cypress Waters Blvd., Irving; (972)-556-2200.