Merlino's Pizza - Cranston, RI - Review
Merlino's sits in a Cranston strip mall like an open secret waiting to be discovered.
The shop itself is small - a couple of tables with tomato cans for holding napkins and cutlery, a set of chairs by the counter that runs against this window. This is a takeout shop, but you will take away a lot more than just a special pizza, you will take away a special person as well.
This is the kind of place that makes you question every assumption you've made about where great food comes from. The pizza here performs a kind of physics that shouldn't be possible in a space this modest.
The sauce tells its own story - whole tomatoes broken down with just enough intervention to make them better without losing their essential character. No dried herbs trying to cover up mediocre ingredients, no sugar masking subpar tomatoes. Just pure, honest flavor that reminds you why tomatoes became sauce in the first place.
The crust - crisp enough on the bottom to satisfy New York purists, but maintaining a pillowy chew around the edges - speaks of someone who understands dough on a molecular level. It's the kind of excellence that comes from endless repetition and attention to detail.
Behind the counter, Carmine works with the kind of quiet confidence that comes from knowing exactly what you're doing and why you're doing it. He's part artist, part scientist, part neighborhood character - the kind of person who makes a place transcend its function as just a pizza shop.
Carmine is someone who cares deeply about their craft and the business of feeding their community the best way they know how. He cares that you will love what he makes, like you are a guest in his home.
In an age of automated ordering and delivery apps, he reminds us that hospitality isn't about efficiency—it's about making people feel welcomed, cared for, and cared about.
Merlino's isn't just serving pizza - they're making the case for you to need to move into the neighborhood.
