Greendale has been the home to Ricardo's Pizzeria since 1970. The Loch family began the Italian restaurant as a pizzeria and expanded to a new menu of pastas, sandwiches, and other entrées after their move to their current location on Broad Street in 1999.
The family-oriented nature of the restaurant creates a warm and inviting atmosphere for guests. The main dining area opens into a large bar, which serves drinks throughout the restaurant hours. Along the back wall a mural of a Venetian canal sits adjacent to a large aquarium.
"Ricardo's is a place for people of all ages," explains the owner Kathy Loch. "This is a community meeting place. Families come for dinner and special occasions. Parents stop in after football games at the high school. Everyone knows everyone here."
The bar itself is also utilized on several nights. Thursday night is Ladies' Night with $5 select martinis and wines. "Our bar manager Sara Spinn has done a beautiful job of hand-crafting customized martinis for the restaurant," said Loch.
Monday nights feature the endless pizza buffet. For only $8.75 per person, guests receive garlic bread and marina as well as an unlimited amount of pizza. Nearly all of the pizzas listed on the normal menu are available on the pizza buffet, with the exception of pizzas that include lettuce. "The pizza buffet was an idea we tried out a few years ago to boost our Mondays nights and it has become an enormous success for us," added Loch.
For those that wish to dine at home, most of the menu is available for carry-out. Guests need to call ahead of time and then can come through the back entrance located on Parking Street to pick up their order.
The menu offers a wide variety of Italian entrees, pastas, salads and specialty pizzas. According to Loch, "the most popular item ordered is the class cheese, sausage, mushroom and onion pizza. Our pizzas have an addictive quality about them. We've been told by regular customers that after returning home from a trip, Ricardo's is their first stop outside the airport. People miss our pizzas that much."
Reservations can be made every day of the week except Mondays for parties of 5 or more. As written on the front of the menus and reiterated by Loch, "If this is your first time here, we are confident that you'll be back."
