At Uncle Rico's in Fort Myers, making pizza is an art not to be rushed

Ever since being named third best New York-style pizza in Florida in a recent Washington Post story, Uncle Rico’s Pizza in Fort Myers has been busy.

Extremely busy.

“It’s been wild,” Enrico Aguila, aka Uncle Rico, said in between making those highly sought-after pizzas.

“It’s just nonstop,” added his wife, Cira, who works the counter and answers the phone in their cozy pizza joint at the corner of Hanson Street and Cleveland Avenue.

That phone was constantly ringing as a steady stream of customers flowed through the front door, eager to try one of the state’s best.

You would have thought it was a Friday or Saturday night with the tables in the small dining room filled to capacity and a growing crowd of customers patiently waiting for their pies.

But it wasn’t a weekend rush. It was an off hour on a Tuesday afternoon.

Welcome to Uncle Rico’s

“I’m making three times the dough I used to,” Aguila said. “And sometimes that’s still not enough.”

The first week after news of his third-best pizza in the state broke, they regularly sold out and closed their doors early.

“We can only do so much with our manpower and space,” Aguila said. “We don’t want Uncle Rico’s to be a pizza factory. We believe in quality over quantity.”

And that begins and ends with the dough.

“My dough is a method, not a recipe,” Aguila said. “It’s different how we make it. The dough is a living organism. It changes every day. I let it ferment, mature.”

His process takes time, which is why he sometimes runs out of dough.

“It’s all time and temperature,” he continued. “Those are most important. Even the temperature of the dough bowl makes a difference. It acts differently every day and we take our time to figure it out.”

While they hired more kitchen help, it is Aguila alone who is in charge of the dough.

“It’s all me because my dough is different,” he said. “Keeping it consistent is very grueling.  Sometimes it can take five or six days to be ready. I come in on my days off to check the dough and see how it’s growing. There are so many in-depth things. If the dough is not ready, I’ll shut my doors. I won’t sell it. We care about our product too much.”

That product is what landed Uncle Rico’s on the best pizzas in the state list.

“Customers do see a difference in our pizza,” Aguila said. “It’s more like a bread than a crust.”

“The technique used makes the dough more digestible,” Cira said. “It’s better tolerated so you’re not bloated or full.”

Best time to get your pizza?

Even with the added staff and more dough, sometimes they’re still catching up.

“Huge orders set us behind,” Cira said. “Twenty, 30, 40 pizzas sometimes.”

The best time to order, she suggests, is at 11 a.m. when they open.

And if you go on a Friday or Saturday, don’t expect to get your pizza within 30 minutes.

“We want to apologize to those who wait or if we run out,” Aguila said. “We are just a small family place and can only do so much. We want every customer to have a great product and a great feeling when they come here.”

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And don’t expect Aguila to sit back and take it easy anytime soon.

“I’m still learning about pizza, dough every day,” he said. “I read books, use different fermentation techniques. The art of making pizza is experimenting every day for the rest of your life. That’s what I’m doing.”

All you need to do is be patient.

And welcome to Uncle Rico’s.

Uncle Rico’s Pizza, 2960 Cleveland Ave., Fort Myers; open at 11 a.m. Tuesday through Saturday; dine-in or takeout available; (239) 362-0083; unclericospizza239.com or follow on Facebook and Instagram.

Robyn George is a food and dining writer for The Fort Myers News-Press. Send news to [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: 'Quality over quantity': The key to Uncle Rico's pizza is in the dough