Hot Springs Keeps Sending People Here
When visitors to Hot Springs ask locals where to eat, DeLuca's Pizza is the answer that comes back most consistently. That kind of word-of-mouth is earned, not marketed, and it shows in how the room runs: Friday nights draw a genuine wait, typically around thirty minutes, in a historic building along the Central Avenue corridor that has anchored Hot Springs dining for years.
The Margherita pizza is the clearest argument for the kitchen. The crust carries real structure, a firm undercarriage with a crunch that signals attention to dough and heat rather than the soft, forgettable bases that pass for pizza elsewhere in the region. It is the kind of pizza that invites comparison to serious rooms, not just to the nearest convenient slice. That foundation extends to the pasta, which rounds out a menu that stays focused rather than sprawling. The burger rounds the short list of signatures, an unusual entry for a pizza room but one that suggests the kitchen is confident enough not to depend on a single category.
Hot Springs runs on tourism, and a moderately priced room that does this kind of work has obvious appeal to visitors who want something better than resort-strip defaults. But the local repeat traffic is the more telling measure. DeLuca's is not trading on novelty; it is holding a standard in a market that sees plenty of one-time visitors who would never know the difference. The room is casual without being indifferent, and the historic building gives it a sense of place that newer builds on the strip cannot manufacture.
For a city that also claims McClard's and The Pancake Shop as institutions, DeLuca's has carved out its own lane: the pizza room Hot Springs residents point to first.
