Gainesville Pizza

Blue Highway Pizzeria is a unique restaurant serving Gainesville, Micanopy, and Ocala. Gainesville pizza is a pretty competitive market--especially in a college town--but the food at Blue Highway is second to none. All the sauces, dressings, and desserts are made in-house. The bread is baked fresh every morning. The dough is made the old-fashioned way, using a two-day fermentation process. The results speak for themselves.

Chef/owner Frank Ruffino has over 30 years experience owning restaurants in Siesta Key, Miami, Chicago, and, of course, Gainesville and Micanopy. He also won many awards a corporate executive chef. However, once he saw the opportunity to open a pizzeria in Micanopy, he was sold.

The Micanopy location has been open since April of 2004. It has steadily built up a loyal following in Micanopy, and enjoys a stream of happy regulars coming in from Gainesville and Ocala to get a quality of fresh food that's just not available anywhere else. Now Blue Highway is very proud to have a second location just north of Gainesville, FL in Tioga Town Center. In a few short years Blue Highway has gone from a small pizza store on 441 to a thriving local business with two locations, over 70 employees, and an excellent reputation.

The first thing you'll notice when you walk into either location is the fantastic smalles coming from the open kitchen. You'll see a team of talented individuals tossing dough, topping pizzas, and navigating a large pizza oven, and you'll smell the fresh sauce, roasted vegetables, and delicious melting cheese. Next you'll notice the atmosphere--a little more funky and unusual at the Micanopy location, a little more sleek and modern at the Tioga Town Center (although both feature a full bar and indoor as well as outdoor seating). Then you'll enjoy the friendly service and take in the fantastic menu. The appetizers alone are worth the drive, not to mention out-of-this-world pizzas, calzones, sandwiches, and salads.

And don't forget the desserts--they vary slightly at the different locations, but the cannolis, key lime pie, and brownies are homemade and absolutely delicious.

Chef Frank Ruffino and Blue Highway Pizza won the local Gainesville Fresh Food Challenge in 2007. Gainesville is full of many local restaurants that are very serious about using fresh and local ingredients whenever possible, and to win that challenge is truly an impressive feat. The salad greens are organic and locally grown in Cross Creek, and you can taste the difference.

Once thing that stands out about Blue Highway is the attention to detail. Baking your own bread every morning is something to be proud of, but how many restaurants have you been to that make their own dressings? It's so great to eat somewhere and know that everything you're eating was made fresh, not frozen and trucked across the state or the country. It is Frank's experience in the restuarant business, and his years spent as a corporate executive chef with his own test kitchen, that gives him the intuition to combine flavors in just the right way and create an experience you will rarely find anywhere.

If you live anywhere near Gainesville or Micanopy, Blue Highway Pizza is absolutely worth the fifteen-minute drive. You will enjoy world-class pizza and calzones, delicious desserts, and friendly small town service.