Austin Italian Restaurant L’Oca d’Oro Is Opening a New Pizzeria

Austin Italian restaurant L’Oca d’Oro is opening a casual pizzeria next year. Bambino will open at 979 Springdale Road, Suite 153 in the Govalle neighborhood sometime in early 2024.

Co-owners Adam Orman and chef Fiore Tedesco are using their New York and Philadelphia roots to drive the menu of the restaurant. This means round sourdough and rectangular Roman-style pies cooked in an electric oven. The team plans on using organic flours such as Barton Springs Mill. (Originally, when Bambino was announced back in December 2022, it was going to focus on a pizza style that combined New York with grandma pies.)

Non-pizza dishes will include items like mozzarella sticks with cacio e pepe sauce, a Caesar salad made with little gem lettuce, tinned fishes, daily burgers, soft serve, and cookies. There will also be a full bar with cocktails, frozen drinks, tapped wines, and wine bottles. The vibe of the Bambino is supposed to feel like the 1980s with an adult spin, according to a rep.

Orman and Tedesco opened their Italian restaurant L’Oca d’Oro in Mueller in 2016 to much acclaim (Tedesco was named Eater’s chef of the year in the Eater Austin Awards that year). Orman also co-founded small business organization Good Work Austin in 2019, which aims to support and advocate for local restaurants and the such, including their important work keeping people fed during Winter Storm Uri in 2021. And while the team had announced a cafe for the nonprofit, it’s unclear if it’s still happening.

Similarly, another group of Austin restaurant players opened their own pizzeria in 2022. People from Salt & Time, Rosen’s Bagel, Lenior, G’Raj Mahal, and Swedish Hill are behind Dovetail Pizza, which opened on South First.

Update, November 21, 2023: This article, originally published on December 22, 2022, has been updated with new information about Bambino’s address, the projected opening time, further menu details and changes, and a new photo.