I imagine it’s difficult to open a successful pizzeria nowadays, what with the competition from national chains, not to mention all the local Italian restaurants.

One newcomer hoping to buck the odds: Crust Pizzeria & Wine Cafe, which opened a couple months ago on the southeast corner of Hayden and Indian Bend roads in Scottsdale.

The strip mall space, which seats about 50 people, is nicely decorated but still exudes a casual vibe. Booths and banquettes line the side walls; tables fill the interior. A polished granite counter, including a small bar, runs along the back.

The extensive menu features a variety of speciality pizzas, available whole or by the slice, as well as several other dough-centric dishes like rusticas, rollatinis and sandwiches. A nice selection of wines is offered by the bottle, half-bottle or glass.

Five of us seat ourselves at Crust’s largest table. More than a half-dozen people work behind the counter, not counting those in the back kitchen, but only one server seems to be taking care of several occupied tables.

My order arrives first — meatball sliders ($9), three large meatballs topped with marinara and Parmesan on grilled foccacia. But after five minutes no one else’s food has appeared, so my hungry friends accept my offer to divide the sliders among us.

Eventually, the rest of our orders materialize.

Pizza slices are good-sized squares with an inch-thick but airy crust. A foccacia slice ($2.50), covered simply with zesty sauce, is my favorite, narrowly beating out the Sicilian ($2.25) and chicken bruschetta ($3).

For those who prefer pizza with a thinner crust, the pepperoni and sausage rustica ($3.50) comes on four irregularly shaped pieces of flatbread that look cracker-crisp but still have a nice chewy consistency.

Grilled eggplant parmigiana rollatini ($6) is yet another variation of dough. The eggplant is baked into a 15-inch-long roll that’s curled into a U-shape. It’s a little dry, but comes with a side of sauce.

The best dish we try is the macaroni and cheese ($7.50), a large oven-baked dish with a crusty top protecting the creamy, delicious inside.

For dessert, we try the suspiciously named pot brownie (shown at right), which turns out to be a warm brownie in an 8-inch-high metal pot that’s then filled to the brim with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, banana bits and nuts. It takes all five of us to finish every delicious bite.

While Crust is not a “destination” restaurant, we’d probably be regulars if we lived in the Pavilions neighborhood. Nothing on the menu takes our breath away, but everything we sample is enjoyable and fairly inexpensive.

For most new pizzerias, that should be good enough to be rolling in dough.

>> Crust Pizzeria & Wine Cafe, 6989 N. Hayden Road, Scottsdale, (480) 948-3099.