About Rusty's
A family kitchen, a wood-fired oven, and a Texarkana table set since 1998.
It started with one oven and a recipe.
Maria Rodriguez opened Rusty's with little more than a family dough recipe and the conviction that real Italian food belongs in a small Texas town.
What began in a modest downtown kitchen has grown into a Texarkana institution — yet little has changed where it matters. We still make dough by hand each morning, still fire the oven with oak, and still greet regulars by name. Every pizza carries the same care it did on the first night.
“We don't just make pizza. We set a table that brings people together.”
Twenty-five years, one family.
- 1998
A single oven downtown
Maria Rodriguez opens the first Rusty's on Main Street with one wood-fired oven and a family dough recipe.
- 2005
A second table in town
Demand outgrows the original room. We open our Richmond Road location to welcome more of Texarkana.
- 2010
Best Pizza, Texarkana
The Texarkana Gazette names Rusty's the city's best pizza — a nod we still carry with pride.
- 2015
An expanded Italian menu
House-made pasta, calzones, and antipasti join the board, deepening our American-Italian roots.
- 2025
Still family-owned
More than twenty-five years on, the same family still stretches the dough and tends the fire each day.
Three things we won't compromise.
Fresh Daily
Every ingredient is brought in fresh each morning. No freezers, no shortcuts — just produce, cheese, and dough at their peak.
Hand-Crafted
Our dough is mixed and stretched by hand every day, from the same recipe we started with in 1998. Slow proof, never rushed.
Locally Sourced
We partner with Texas farmers and dairies — fresh mozzarella from regional creameries, vegetables grown close to home.
Where the day begins.
From the morning prep table to the last pull from the oak fire.
Taste the tradition.
More than twenty-five years of honest, wood-fired Italian — and the oven's always on. Come see what the family's been up to.