Order Elvis Presley's Favorite Pizza At The Old-School Italian Restaurant He Adored

If there's one thing Memphis knows, it's how to feed a legend. Just ask Coletta's Italian Restaurant, one of Elvis Presley's favorite restaurants in the country and home to the pizza that won over the King himself. Inside its South Parkway location, "The Elvis Room" still glows with nostalgia. It features a cardboard cutout of Elvis in his gold lamé suit, which stands watch over the same booths he once filled. Fans from around the globe sit where he sat and order the same meal that made history.

That dish wasn't just any pizza. It was a smoky, sweet barbecue version topped with tender pork, tangy sauce, and a layer of Southern charm that somehow outshined even its mozzarella. According to the Coletta family, Priscilla Presley and his crew would swing by weekly to pick up orders and bring them back to Graceland.  Decades later, she and Lisa Marie both signed menus during visits. It's the kind of family connection that turned a local Italian joint into a Memphis institution. Coletta's has seen a century of diners come and go, but the pull of Elvis remains. In a city defined by barbecue and music, it's the rare restaurant that bridges both. A place where ordering a pie means stepping into history, and maybe, just for a meal, dining like the King himself.

Long before Elvis Presley was signing menus at Coletta's, the restaurant was already writing Memphis food history. It started back in 1923, when Emil Coletta opened what was then the Suburban Ice Cream Company. It was a humble neighborhood spot that served homemade ice cream and sandwiches. When sailors from a nearby Navy base began asking for pizza, a dish virtually unknown in the South, Emil sent his son Horest to Chicago to learn how to make it. The new addition didn't take off at first. Locals weren't sure what to make of it until Horest added a Memphis twist: barbecue pork and sauce.

That improvisation changed everything. What began as a way to help cautious diners warm up to pizza became a citywide signature and, eventually, the King's go-to order. While Elvis Presley's favorite on-stage drink — Gatorade — kept him fueled under the lights, offstage he was all about comfort. Few things captured that better than Coletta's barbecue pizza. Its sweet and smoky edge spoke to the same Southern roots that shaped his music.

A century later, the Coletta family still runs both locations — the South Parkway original and the Appling Road outpost — with fourth and fifth generations keeping Horest's invention alive. The barbecue pizza remains untouched, a relic of the moment Memphis met Italy and Elvis made it immortal. Today, visitors still walk through those doors for the same reason he did.