Tucked back behind the bars and splashier-looking restaurants of Lower Greenville is Pietro’s, an Italian bistro housed in a quaint structure that looks more apartment building than restaurant. Though well known among area veterans, it’s easy for some of our neighborhood’s many newcomers to pass on by.
Which is a shame, because not only is the food delicious, the atmosphere is pure East Dallas — laid back yet polished. You can easily wear your favorite pair of blue jeans here, yet at the end of the night you’ll feel as pampered as if you’d worn your Sunday best.
Part of that hospitality has to do with the fact the family that owns and runs the restaurant (kindly Pietro Eustachio is the patriarch) lives above it, something quite common in Italy. And the Eustachio clan treats customers as if they are indeed welcoming them into their home.
It’s a way of life that has paid off well. In a time when many Dallas restaurants can change ownership in the time it takes most of us to blow our low-carb diets, Pietro’s is a something of an institution at almost 50 years old.
The bistro specializes in Sicilian food, but also plates up some Northern Italian dishes and has a pretty decent wine list as well. The atmosphere is perhaps a bit too stereotypically Italian, with red-and-white checked tablecloths, Chianti bottles strewn about and Italian travel posters hung up on the walls.
But if you really want to feel like you’ve made a trip abroad, Pietro’s is about the closest you’ll come in our neighborhood. Sit close to the kitchen, close your eyes, smell the aromas of garlic, red sauce and lemon juice wafting about, take a sip of your jammy red wine, and listen as the cook staff speaks Italian as they whip up your dinner.
Pietro’s
5722 Richmond
214-824-9403
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