A left-for-dead pizza place plays phoenix

They say it's always darkest just before the dawn, unless you're on the Pitch Black planet, in which case it's always darkest just before you find an angry bald man from a mighty race thought to have been extinct for centuries -- so pretty much it's always darkest. Stepping into the dawn of a brand new location, Santino's Goodfellas.

Goodfellas was an award-winning Carrollton gourmet-pizza franchise that went indie after parent-co. bankruptcy in '08, then shuttered for seeming-good when its landlord was foreclosed on; recently though, a prime N Plano strip center offered a sweet relocation deal, which 'fellas took, adding classier NYC-referencing decor, a sidewalk patio, a traditional family-style private room and, most critically, a full bar with bottle-shelved windows, offering a perfect blend of daydreaming and daydrinking. Overseen by a Staten Island expat, the all-fresh-ingredient pies run from the beef/'roni/sausage/ham "Santino's Supreme", to the garlic/sausage/roasted pepper/plum-tomato sauce "Goodfella", to the 'shroom/prosciutto/pea "Pizza alla Vodka" -- whose liquor-laced tomato-cream sauce will provide ample proof...that you're fat. Bonus goodness includes egg batter-dipped fried-mozz "carrozza", beef-'n'-sausage homestyle lasagna, four-sea-meat Frutti di Mare, prime steaks, and lobster-sauced "Shrimp Romulus", which unlike Shrimp Vulcan doesn't taste like rubber. Yeah, that was a Star Trek joke.

Margs, bellinis & more should arrive in 2-3 weeks; in the meantime score 28 wines, four taps, and 18 bottles from Corona & Strongbow to Peroni & Birra Moretti -- all solid go-to's for when you're feeling black, and need something Diesel.