Camporosso

I’ve eaten at Camporosso several times. This time I went back twice in two days and took pics and notes for an official review. This place is legit.

Eric and Amy Redfield converted a Depression-era Sunoco station on Dixie Highway in Fort Mitchell into a wood-fired pizzeria, and the national attention followed. Pizza Today named it 2024 Pizzeria of the Year, Food & Wine called it the best pizza in Kentucky, and Guy Fieri brought Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives through in 2025. Awards are nice. Sitting on the patio for two hours on a Friday tells you more.

The Vibe

The station never really left. The big glass overhead doors inside are the old service bays, and when they’re up the dining room runs straight out onto the front patio. Part of the patio sits under a roof strung with lights, and the rest is open to the sky under umbrellas. A bourbon barrel serves as the water station. Inside, a tiled dome oven anchors the room with split wood stacked underneath, and the bar wraps around it so counter seats can watch the pies go in.

A small detail I appreciate as someone who orders a lot of food at every meal: the patio two-tops are the same size as the four-tops. Two pizzas and a pasta fit without a balancing act.

The music is turned down so low you can barely catch the melody, because the room doesn’t need it. The place runs on conversation. I was the only person eating alone and still ended up talking with the table next to me. The couple said it was their Friday night go-to for pizza and wine. Date-night couples, older couples, families with kids, all at once. By quarter to six, the benches past the patio railing were full of people waiting for a table, gathered around a fire pit set in the middle of it all. Camporosso built its overflow to be a place people actually want to hang out. A steady line walked out with three and four pizza boxes apiece, and I watched two people carry out what had to be ten.

Service was excellent from the hostess on. My server had tables split between the front and the back and apologized a few times for running behind. She was stretched thin and said so, which I’ll take every time.

Parking is tight. There’s a small lot out back, and on a busy road there isn’t much overflow once the place fills, which it does.

The Food

Camporosso runs two pizza programs. The Neapolitan comes out of the wood-fired oven at 12 inches, built on long-proofed imported Caputo 00 flour and baked at around 1,000 degrees. The Americana is a 16-inch pie from an electric Cuppone deck oven imported from Italy. I love wood-fired and went that way every time.

I started with the Rosso, their namesake cocktail of Woodford Double Oaked, sweet vermouth, orange bitters and bordeaux cherries. It’s good, a classic drink done right.

All The Meat is cup-and-char pepperoni, sausage, sopressata and bacon. The crust came out with leopard spotting all the way around and a couple of fully blackened blisters, which is what a 1,000-degree oven does. Flip a slice and the underside is charred evenly, thin, and dry under four meats. The bite is tender. It pulls apart easily and doesn’t take an alligator’s 3,000 psi to get through. It’s a folder, and that’s the pizza for me. The sauce is light and adds flavor without taking over. The pepperoni curls into crisp-edged cups without leaving puddles of orange oil behind, which is exactly what keeps a four-meat pie from turning greasy.

The Pepper and the Pig is a different pizza entirely. It’s lighter and less meat-dense, with wild boar salami and chopped peppadews scattered across it. I liked the bite of the pepper against the cheese and the meat. If you want to taste the dough, this is the one.

The Bucatini all’Amatriciana is house-made bucatini in their spicy marinara with pancetta, whipped pecorino ricotta, and a crispy pancetta wheel standing upright on top, plus grilled ciabatta for the sauce. “Spicy” is generous; I’d call it mild with a little bite and very tasty. The noodle is terrific. It’s thicker than store-bought spaghetti without being clunky, and cooked properly al dente. The ricotta, the pancetta crisp and the ciabatta all work together. Nothing stood out individually, and I mean that in the best way. Everything here is very good, and the bucatini fits right in.

I came back the next day for lunch with my wife to work through more of the menu, and we ordered two more wood-fired pies. I had the Camporosso Deluxe, a good supreme-style pizza with onion, green pepper, mushroom, cup-and-char pepperoni and sausage, and the crust was awesome again. My wife ordered the Quattro Formaggi, which skips the red sauce for fresh mozzarella, smoked provolone, fontina, pecorino and olive oil. I didn’t get a bite. She loved it enough to box up a slice for the friend she was seeing afterward.

The starters told a different story. The seasoning is restrained. The meatballs have great texture, but there’s little seasoning and no garlic coming through, and the marinara leans tomato. To a meatball snob, they’re average, and my wife agreed. The risotto balls have a melted-cheese center and are good, but bland. A shake of the table red pepper helped a little, but it isn’t the answer. The Italian-inspired chili is thick, con carne style, and topped with Parm. I liked it. The menu says it’s spiced with Italian herbs and Calabrian chili, but they stay quiet. The soup special that day was chicken, broccoli and potato, and it was a hit with my wife: plenty of broccoli and potato, not too creamy, just right.

I skipped wine both times, but Camporosso is known for its list. There are four rotating selections on tap, two white and two red. The list leans Italian, with a reserve tier that reaches a Barolo and a Brunello, and there’s a Spanish red aged in used Van Winkle bourbon barrels. Every bottle comes with a pairing from the menu.

The Bottom Line

Camporosso wins on the pizza and the room. Four wood-fired pies across two days, and the crust never missed. The starters run on restrained seasoning, so build your order around the pizza and the pasta. The awards are earned, and the benches full of people waiting at a quarter to six back them up. Get there early, expect to circle for parking, and order wood-fired.

Worth the Drive.