Nino’s owners take over Oscar’s Gourmet Pizza

The owners of Nino’s Italian Restaurant, Elton and Randee Hyndman, have taken over Oscar’s Gourmet Pizza Joint on Perkins Road and revamped the menu. Some favorites are gone, but the Hyndmans have retained many other popular menu items, just tweaked them to implement Nino’s “fresh and from scratch” philosophy. The D.A. Gumbo is now a shrimp and sausage gumbo pizza, for example; and creations like the Pig and Fig and the Perkins Pesto remain untouched, save for fresher ingredients. Even the pizza dough is now made from scratch, from a sourdough wheat crust that is also used to make new bread and cheese sticks appetizers. Oscar’s popular ice cream also remains, although Elton Hyndman says they are tweaking that as well. “We’re trying to stick to fresh, local fruit in the ice cream—fresh strawberries, that sort of thing,” he says. “We want to keep the syrups and preservatives out of the food as much as possible.” Other Italian desserts, such as Nino’s popular tiramisu, are also available at Oscar’s. “We basically share a kitchen with Nino’s,” says Hyndman. “We ship fresh dough and pasta over to Oscar’s, as well as anything else we need—we’re right around the corner, after all.” Read this week’s entire 225 Dine newsletter here.