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Bruscato's - Pizza (With Delivery) at N. Fairfax and Montgomery Street in Old Town Alexandria


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I probably know some parts of the story.  If you search in google for Listrani's N. Fairfax Street, Alexandria, you will find plenty of references.   Bruscato's is either a new name for what was Listrani's, or a new restaurant sold by the Listrani's guys to a new group.   I suspect it is the same operator(s) as before.  They have a new name.  Why?  I couldn't say.  Evidently Listrani's in Alexandria opened in '89, which would make it the first Listrani's in Virginia.

Gentlemen, formerly associated with Listrani's, opened the Va branches.   The menu's came straight from the Palisades location.  At some point I suspect the Va locations and DC location had no relationship beyond name and menu.  I doubt there was a financial or partnership arrangement with any of the DC participants in the last decade or so (or longer), but I can't be sure.  At some point in the last 5 years or so the Va partnership broke apart.  One person got the McLean location and the other had the Alexandria and Arlington locations.  The Arlington location closed, as did all retail in that building as the building is targeted to  be demolished and turned into a new development shortly.

I haven't been to the Palisades location in years.  I either ate in or ordered out many times.  I thought of the original Palisades location similar to the many variations on the Pines's restaurants--very mediocre.  I thought Listrani's and the different Pines's were different but neither were excellent.

An interesting saga.  I bet you would get a lot of different variations on the stories if you spoke with different critical people in that group.  I still think it has reasonable take out food.

 

They're still delivering to Arlington from the Alexandria location, but the last time we got it, the pizza was undercooked.  I don't know of other pizza/Italian places that deliver to the Courthouse area other than Papa John's and similar ilk, though picking up at Fireworks has worked (pizza ready in 15 minutes both times). Wish Faccia Luna had delivery!

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They're still delivering to Arlington from the Alexandria location, but the last time we got it, the pizza was undercooked.  I don't know of other pizza/Italian places that deliver to the Courthouse area other than Papa John's and similar ilk, though picking up at Fireworks has worked (pizza ready in 15 minutes both times). Wish Faccia Luna had delivery!

Since yesterday, Bruscato's fixed the home page of their website (sort of - today is the 228th of July). :)

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(Note that there's a $15 minimum and $2 delivery charge.)

They also say they've been serving Alexandria since 1989, so that implies (to me, anyway) that they owned Listrani's, and changed the name.

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They're still delivering to Arlington from the Alexandria location, but the last time we got it, the pizza was undercooked.  I don't know of other pizza/Italian places that deliver to the Courthouse area other than Papa John's and similar ilk, though picking up at Fireworks has worked (pizza ready in 15 minutes both times). Wish Faccia Luna had delivery!

The former Listrani's at Courthouse did most of their business via delivery.  It clearly did all the Arlington deliveries.  Who knows how well they can cover Arlington and the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor from Alexandria.  Alternatively who knows if the McLean location could cover the corridor.

But if I had a pizza place in that corridor that was measurably better than the domino's, papa john, pizza hut type place...I'd jump in with delivery.

Papa John's and Courthouse Listrani's would share some delivery drivers and at times would provide back up for one another.  There is a lot of pizza delivery opportunity in that area.  It seems the biggest issue is having a surface parking lot where delivery cars can be parked for free.

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They've been Bruscatos since the 1990's...they still make one of the best subs around..the bread is the key

Thanks for the update.  I knew there was more "intrigue" in the story than I was privy to.   Meanwhile in going through the menu at Bruscatos there are certain pasta dishes that come directly from the original Listrani's, were on the Courthouse menu, and are probably on the McLean menu.  Nice to know that the subs are good.

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Ran into the owner of Bruscato's the other day.  He is the former owner operator of Listrani's in Arlington, and the Listrani's in McLean.  Not sure if he is doing delivery in Arlington or not, but I'd think he has a lot of the same recipe's as the old Arlington Listrani's. 

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Dropped in just last week for the first time in more than a year. Forgot how good just the straight up "Italian Sub I" is.  Bread is excellent, as are the hot peppers, and everything is proportioned just right.   

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