Commercial kitchens often appear functional more than beautiful. Stainless steel workstations and rubber floor mats prevail in many back-of-house spaces. Dolomiti Pizzeria & Enoteca, however, showcases a pistachio-green pizza oven that serves as a focal point and is as beautiful as any portrait on a living-room wall.
That pistachio green carries through to the vintage midcentury modern tiles that line a portion of the floor and serve as a different accent to the reclaimed wood used in other areas. Sitting near the front of the bar area, patrons can view greens being snipped from pots and pizzas being slid in and out of the enormous oven by chef Roberto Garcia, who crafts everything from a traditional pepperoni to the trendy “Zucca,” squash, kale, and red onion topped with cheese (dairy by default, but vegan cheese can be substituted for an extra charge).
It’s a relaxed, but somewhat upscale vibe that matches the relaxed vibe of co-owner Tim Maides, known previously as Chef Maides at Gather and other places around town.
There’s good pizza in this town—after all, Omaha’s home to Godfather’s, and recent pizza joints such as Dante’s or Lyle’s offer upscale cuisines that cater to their neighborhood regulars as well as the occasionally curious. It’s what Maides wanted when he started a pizza place in a burgeoning area of the city.
The heart of this story, however, starts more than four years ago and was disrupted in 2020.
“The property owners were curious about Au Courant, which is my brother and business partner’s restaurant,” Maides said. “This was right before COVID…So, for us, it was like ‘well, this is a new neighborhood, and what’s a food that, if something goes wrong, we can pivot and focus on takeout?”
Thus, a pizzeria became the idea of the restaurant. But Maides, being originally from Switzerland, not southern Italy, chose to serve a Northern Italy-style pizza that is a bit different from the Neapolitan style often associated with pizza here in the U.S.
“We bake it a little differently. Neapolitan is hot, fast, with a light, crispy dough,” Maides said. “We bake ours at a little lower temperature. You still get that nice, charred flavor from the fire, but it has a little more structure.”
Their toppings also reflect a more northern climate. Mortadella, a Northern Italian meat that differs from its cousin bologna by having fat pieces and sometimes pistachios to break up its texture, is big on the menu. Maides is hoping his winter menu can include raclette, a potent cheese that has started to catch on in the U.S., especially as it has been seen on TV in a dramatic presentation of charring, then scraping, the raclette onto burgers, bread, and other foods. Their signature pies—including a hearty patata pie made from sliced potatoes, caramelized onions, and pancetta—also represent northern Italian ingredients.
Then there’s the drinks. Maides specifically pairs his pizzas with drinks that are lighter, as opposed to the heavier craft cocktails seen around the city at trendy bars.
“I love having a bunch of N/A options,” Maides said. “When I worked in Germany, they sold more N/A beers than anywhere else, because Europeans interact with alcohol different. I’d be at a wedding place, and during the day they would drink non-alcoholic beers, but at night, they would drink alcohol.”
Those options include a Desert Nectar from Saro Cider in Lincoln and a Phony Negroni, bottled by St. Agrestis. Those who enjoy a glass of something boozy with dinner can fear not—the drinks menu includes beers, wines, cocktails, and variety of spritzes (from Aperol to Limoncello).
“I love the rise of spritzes,” Maides said. “Anytime I was in Europe, I was drinking Aperol Spritz.”
While Northern Italian fare and drinks prevail, diners at Dolomiti can expect a new pizza every week that reflects the seasons of the Midwest through their produce.
“Whatever the farmers are growing, we turn it into a pizza,” Maides said.
It helps Maides that his chef is someone he has known for years.
“Roberto…has more experience in the restaurant world than anyone I know,” he said. “I wouldn’t trust anyone more. He’s truly the puppeteer behind the scenes.”
That puppet master has truly pulled the strings on Dolomiti's pizza. When Maides offered him creative control of the menu, he dove in and got pie on his face regularly, trying pizzas in a variety of places in town, figuring out the right combination of ingredients in a sauce, the right way to get that unique texture on the crust.
Garcia also created a variety of delectable menu items that don’t have anything to do with sauce, crust, cheese, and toppings. Appetizers (Stuzzichini, Italian for “nibbles” or appetizer) include hummus made from white beans often found in Northern Italy and “salumi and formaggi for two” an Italian charcuterie made up of seasonally rotating meats and cheese with sides and housemade focaccia.
While Maides has been known for his creations in the kitchen, in this venture, he’s at the front of the house. One would think he’s been front-of-house his whole career, as he greets diners who may not have come in previously, asks a regular about their family, and makes sure everyone who comes to his establishment is well-fed and happy.
“It’s fun for me that, even though I spend so much time here, I still get to engage with friends, family, the community,” Maides said. “I love this because it’s the opposite of a kitchen. It’s calm, it’s relaxing.”
He’s cultivated that relaxed atmosphere, in part, in the way that he pays his servers to create a team. Maides understands that the front of the house can be cutthroat, with the servers working specific sections and sometimes becoming territorial over a section. The service staff pools tips in order to keep everyone on the same page.
“I do think it helps everyone,” Maides said. “You know, someone’s struggling that day, another person can just jump in, help them out…And that’s huge for me, because we work too hard in this industry not to enjoy our jobs.”
The community in the restaurant, and the community outside the restaurant, has learned The Ashton holds a special pizza place in its walls.
“I’ve met more Austrians than ever because of the name Dolomiti,” Maides said. The name comes from the mountain range in Northern Italy. “It’s right on the border, and actually used to be a part of Austria before the war.”
The restaurant has received visitors from Austria, Rome, and more. Maides has appreciated the love they have all had for his restaurant.
“We had a family from Milan come in. It was two adults, two kids,” Maides said. “They came in close to the end of the night. The joke is, pizza is like a waffle, your first pizza, your last pizza, they’re never your best ones.”
This particular night, he didn’t worry about this old addage. On request of the server, he chatted with the family and found out they were from Milan and only in town for a couple of weeks. “The guy was like, this is not only the best pizza I’ve had in Nebraska, but the best pizza I’ve had in the Midwest.”
Maides said that feedback blew his mind. And he hopes that, as winter in the Midwest hits, the hearty, Northern Italian pizzeria he’s helped create can blow Omahans in his door for warm, comforting food.
“Winter in Omaha is not a lot of fun,” Maides said. “Being in a warm, cozy place with delicious food makes that a little more bearable.”
Visit pizzadolomiti.com for more information.This article originally appeared in the January/February 2025 issue of Omaha Magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
