When Peter Colombo moved from Chicago to Dallas he noticed that the city was bereft his favorite cuisine: Italian food.

“Back then there were less than 10 Italian restaurants in the city, and I was trying to fill that gap,” Colombo said. “Now there are hundreds of them.”

Not all Italian restaurants are created equal though, and since 1982 the White Rock area eatery on Buckner Road has chiseled out a niche for itself as an independent, casual vibe neighborhood restaurant where the menu isn’t set in stone.

“The difference between us and a chain is that I can do anything that I want. There are no rules,” he said. “If it’s not on the menu just ask, and we’ll try and do it.”

The attitude has created a cadre of loyal East Dallas customers who come to dine in the restaurant a couple of times a week.

Since the beginning Alfonso’s has served up the same delicious pizza and pasta dishes.

“We’ve been here 27 years and we still use the same ingredients and recipes,” he said. “Everything is consistent. If you moved away and came back in 10 years, you would get the same great-tasting food.”

Fresh ingredients are a key component of the restaurants longevity. The restaurant doesn’t pre-cook anything, and once they run out of an ingredient they don’t just run down the street to the supermarket to replace it.

“Our ingredients are of a certain quality and unless we can get that same thing we’re not going to plug the gap with something that’s of lesser quality,” Samantha Boren, manager of Alfonso’s said.

For more information visit alfonsositalianrestaurant.com.