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It’s Sunday night, a time for winding down and preparing for the week ahead, but you’d never know it at Dion’s on Montgomery Boulevard in the Northeast Heights.

At 6 p.m. the drive-thru line wraps around the building. Vans and SUVs expel families into a busy dining room where no less than 15 young people in tomato-red aprons and caps work behind the counter, attending to the pizza ovens and the register and drive-thru window. A couple of kids watch the complex choreography from an observation platform overlooking the space where the dough gets tossed.

The bustling scene is typical of the city’s foremost restaurant success story. Everyone of a certain age in Albuquerque and Rio Rancho, it seems, has eaten at Dion’s, and a significant proportion of them have worked there too.

The Dion’s story is firmly implanted in local restaurant lore. In 1978, Jon Patten and Bill Scott moved west and bought a defunct pizza shop in the Eldorado Square shopping center at Juan Tabo and Montgomery boulevards. They intended to turn it into a Greek restaurant called Dionysus, but their pies proved to be so popular, they abandoned the Greek concept completely in favor of pizza.

A wise decision, it turns out. Dion’s — the name was shortened from Dionysus, purportedly to save money on signage — expanded slowly and steadily over the ensuing decades to become a multistate chain with outlets all over the city. Along the way, it ditched the strip malls for the now familiar freestanding red brick boxes with green awnings and white trim.

As the operation grew, the milestones piled up. In 1995, Dion’s started bottling its popular salad dressings. Expansion came to Texas in 2008 and Colorado four years later. Green Chile Ranch dressing debuted in 2017, and then last year, the franchise rolled out its own gluten-free pizza.

Though I never need such a dramatic reason to visit Dion’s — usually, a simple pang of hunger is enough — news about the gluten-free pies spurred me to visit the Montgomery spot located on the north side of the street between Juan Tabo and Eubank boulevards. It’s the one closest to the original location.

The heavenly smell of pizzas cooking in the ovens greeted us as we walked in. The rectangular dining room, a combination of tables and booths, was about half full. Most diners chose to eat in booths over which loom fake stained-glass lamps that seem like relics from the ’90s.

While Dion’s has added new items to the menu over the years, the focus has not drifted. It’s nothing but Pizzas, Salads and Subs, each item helpfully listed with its calorie content.

Salads are often an afterthought at pizza places, but not at Dion’s. The offerings here are terrific and serve as a hedge against overindulging on pizza. They are available in Half, Full and Family sizes.

A longtime menu mainstay, the Greek Salad ($6.95/$10.05/$16.95) half portion was served in a black plastic bowl on a paper plate alongside a sealed cup of Greek dressing. The lettuce was topped with cherry tomatoes, sliced kalamata olives, croutons and a generous spread of feta cheese. The fresh ingredients were well distributed, their flavors boosted by a sour, tangy dressing that echoed the flavor of the feta.

Another mainstay, the Chicken Pecan Salad ($6.95/$10.05/$16.95) is built off a bed of spring greens like arugula and spinach with blue cheese crumbled on top. Lots of pecans and big chunks of cold white meat chicken topped it off. Like the Greek Salad, this one was well balanced, and the raspberry vinaigrette dressing paired optimally with the slightly bitter greens and the mild-flavored chicken. Excellent and filling enough for a meal, even at the half size.

Pizzas come in two categories: Original and Gourmet. The gourmet is a thinner, crisper crust dressed with olive oil.

Many customers opt for slices built off the cheese base. A hefty slice of the 505 ($4.25) arrived on a paper plate, the rim flecked with toasted cheese. The slice, more cheese than sauce, held large pieces of pepperoni cupped from the heat of the oven. The roasted green chile stitched into the cheese below was assertive in heat and flavor, and the crust was a marvel, thick and airy with a crisp rim and a grease-free underside. A very good piece of pizza.

The Veggie slice ($5.45) came with green bell peppers, mushrooms and black olives heaped on top. I’ve had this slice many times over the years, and the chief problem with it is the lack of integration between the veggies and cheese. One wrong move and the toppings just fall off. Still, it’s a tasty slice with lots of crunch when you get everything in one bite.

Dion’s recently developed gluten-free pizza is cooked in a dedicated pan, though the facility is obviously not gluten-free and cross-contamination is possible.

We ordered a 12-inch Pepperoni ($16.25). The pie arrived on a pizza tray, its cheesy surface gleaming with oil. As for the crust, Dion’s version was thicker and less gritty than typical versions. Nevertheless, it’s a noticeable step down from its gluten-containing counterpart. I thought that the cheese-sauce balance here leaned too much in the direction of cheese. It’s a personal preference, but I like to have an ample amount of sharp, tangy sauce onboard to cut the richness of the cheese.

The Subs menu consists of seven varieties in six- and 10-inch versions. I’m a fan of the Italian version and its interplay between shredded lettuce and spicy, springy cold cuts, but on this visit, I opted for the Meatball & Provolone Sub. ($8.85/$11.55). The small version contained three fine-grained, dense meatballs under melted cheese. The star was the exceptional bread with a bubbled, crackling surface and soft core. The sandwich comes with a choice of a fruit cup or chips. The fruit in the latter was fresh and firm if not especially sweet.

The rest of the menu includes a few sides like meatballs and garlic toast, plus a fruit cup and cookies and brownies from Dion’s own in-town bakery. The baked treats are difficult to resist, being stacked right next to the register. The chocolate chip cookie ($2.50) we got was firm with a craggy surface and lots of chips. Alas, it’s served at room temperature. If they had popped it in the oven for a minute, it would have been perfect.

Dion’s is not a table service place. Ordering is done at the counter, and the customer’s name is called out when the order is ready. Our food was ready in 20 minutes, a wait time consistent with the estimate indicated on the receipt. As busy as it was on this night, the tables and booths were bussed promptly.

Besides the pizza, gluten-friendly options include the salads sans croutons.

Now in its fifth decade of operation, Dion’s is a smoothly run, efficient machine that admirably sticks to what it does well: pizza, sandwiches and salads that are among the best in the city.