Acquario Pizza, Pasta and Bar Opens Sister Location in Keller, Texas

Getting a giant Neapolitan oven into a Keller strip mall required pulling out the front windows entirely. That's how committed Elda and Emil "Nino" Rata were when they opened Acquario Pizza, Pasta & Bar at 967 Keller Parkway on March 2, 2026, a casual sister concept to their well-regarded Acquario Italian Restaurant on the Keller-Southlake border.

The motivation was straightforward. "There was no high-quality, traditional Neapolitan pizza around here," Emil Rata said as the first customers streamed in during the restaurant's soft-opening phase. After three years running the finer-dining original at 8849 Davis Blvd, the Ratas decided the same city could support a second, more family-friendly concept anchored by proper Neapolitan pies.

To execute that vision, they hired Gimmy Piperku, a national award-winning pizzaiolo who came to Keller from Rome via Las Vegas and San Diego. The oven he works with is the kind that doesn't fit through standard doors. The introductory menu built around it offers 10 pizzas, with toppings including soppressata, prosciutto cotto, Calabrian chili peppers, and cup-and-char pepperoni. Neapolitan-style pizza, for anyone who hasn't encountered it at local reference points like Cane Rosso, runs soft, light, and airy with high, charred edges. Piperku's versions have drawn comparisons to Bocca Osteria Romana and its Felina pizzeria downtown, which in the Fort Worth dining landscape is a serious benchmark.

The pasta program holds up equally well. The spaghetti al limone, a vegetarian dish finished in lemon cream sauce, comes recommended. The gnocchi is the showpiece: each potato dumpling is served in a bread bowl made of pizza crust, swimming in marinara, with a pull of mozzarella that stretches dramatically when you lift a piece. "It's a very unique presentation," said one diner. The puccia bread starter, a soft pull-apart loaf served alongside whipped eggplant dip, sets the tone for the meal from the first bite. Rigatoni alla Norma rounds out the red-sauce options with eggplant in the mix.

The space itself is a nondescript strip mall off Keller Parkway near Rufe Snow Drive and Keller Town Center, intentionally more casual than the original Acquario. That's by design. Elda Rata, a native of Albania with a law degree who is currently running for Keller City Council Place 4, pointed to what the first restaurant taught her about community. "We built a bridge between the community," she said, "where people could meet each other." The second Acquario is built with the same instinct, just at a lower price of entry and with a wood-fired oven that nearly took out the building's facade getting there.

Acquario Pizza, Pasta & Bar is open for lunch and dinner six days a week and closed Mondays.