Dion's Pizza is opening its second El Paso location this Thursday at 10:30 a.m. near Zaragoza Road and Pebble Hills Boulevard, bringing the New Mexico-based pizza chain's signature pies, salads and subs to the city's fast-growing East Side. The 4,200-square-foot restaurant will mark the company's 29th location overall and its fourth in Texas.
The grand opening celebration will include El Paso community members and student representatives from Pebble Hills High School's arts and athletic programs, according to KTSM 9 News. Children from Dream Small Ministries will also take part, getting a behind-the-scenes look at the kitchen and a taste of fresh pizza slices as part of the festivities.
The new store will feature an open kitchen and dining room with seating for up to 78 guests, plus a drive-thru pick-up window for customers with advance orders. Beyond dine-in, the location will support call-in, online, delivery and mobile app ordering, along with catering that includes delivery availability, per the same report from KTSM 9 News.
A Second Bite of El Paso After a Strong Debut
Dion's first entered the El Paso market in June 2024 with a Northwest El Paso location at 7484 Paseo del Norte that served more than 1,000 customers on opening day, according to KLAQ. That kind of demand appears to have paved the way for the chain's rapid follow-up on the East Side.
Mark Herman, a company representative, said Dion's has felt incredibly welcomed by the El Paso community since opening its first location. He added that the company is excited to join the East Side and create an easy, comfortable neighborhood place for families and friends to connect, and said Dion's looks forward to building relationships with schools, businesses and families in East El Paso, according to KTSM 9 News.
The new location is expected to create approximately 65 job opportunities. Interest in those jobs has already been intense: Dion's temporarily closed online applications for the Zaragoza and Pebble Hills store ahead of opening due to an overwhelming volume of applicants, even as application portals for other regional locations stayed open, according to Dion's.
Deep New Mexico Roots and a Careful Texas Expansion
Dion's was founded in Albuquerque in 1978 by Jon Patten and Bill Scott, who had originally purchased a small pizzeria intending to convert it into a Greek eatery called Dionysus before shortening the name on a sign bid to save costs, per Dion's own company history. A Greek salad remains on the menu today as the sole vestige of that original concept. Under Patten's leadership as president from 1978 to 2007, the company grew from a single store with one part-time employee into a regional brand with 13 stores and more than 1,000 employees, according to Viante New Mexico; Patten still serves as chairman of the company's board.
The chain first tested the Texas market in 2008 with a Lubbock location, which served as its primary Texas footprint for 16 years before the El Paso push began, according to River Oaks Properties. Before opening its second El Paso restaurant, Dion's operated 28 total locations across three states — 22 in New Mexico, three in Colorado and three in Texas, the same report notes.
Youth Employment and a Growth Corridor
Roughly 37% of the about 60 employees at Dion's original Northwest El Paso store were teenagers age 17 or younger, per River Oaks Properties' reporting. The company pairs that youth-heavy staffing with elementary school educational tours, and the new East Side location will similarly offer educational tours for children from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade.
The Zaragoza Road site sits in the 79938 zip code, which real estate analysis from LoopNet identifies as one of the El Paso metro area's fastest-growing residential and retail development corridors. Dion's continues its commitment to supporting youth development in the communities it serves, a theme reflected in both its hiring practices and its school outreach programs across El Paso.
Dion's is also known beyond pizza for its house-made salad dressings, particularly Ranch and Green Chile Ranch, which the company began bottling and selling in 16-ounce containers in 1995, with Green Chile Ranch added to the retail lineup in 2017, according to the company's own history. The brand has also diversified beyond pizza in recent years, opening a sister dining concept called Tula's Kitchen in Albuquerque in October 2022.
