Six people, and none of them are a brand
The crew
A small shop, so everybody does one thing properly rather than everything adequately. Here is who does what.
Here since 1994
Sal Provenzano
Owner and head pizzaiolo
Sal opened the shop on 61st Street in 1994 with a second-hand deck oven and his mother's sauce recipe, and he has opened the dough every morning since. He is the one who decided the dough would be given two days instead of two hours, which cost the business money for about a year and then stopped costing it money. If a pie comes out wrong he would rather remake it than discuss it.
Here since 1994
Nina Provenzano
Owner, front of house and catering
Nina runs everything that is not the oven: the counter, the telephone, the books and every catering order that goes out of the door. She is the reason the allergen page on this site says what it says — she has spent thirty years telling people the truth about a shared kitchen, and she has never once found that it lost a customer worth keeping.
Here since 2016
Marco Riccio
Pizzaiolo, the Neapolitan oven
Marco learned on a wood oven outside Naples and spent four years persuading Sal that a 90-second pizza belonged in a New York shop. The Italian-style pies are his: a wetter dough, a hotter floor and a rim that has to blister rather than brown. He also keeps the fire, which is a job in itself.
Here since 2009
Elena Vargas
Dough and prep lead
Elena mixes, weighs, balls and racks every piece of dough in the building, and tracks what the cold room is doing to it hour by hour. Dough is a live thing and the weather changes it; she is the one who adjusts for that so nobody else has to notice. She also runs the roll bench with Rosa.
Here since 1998
Rosa Castellano
Rolls, breads and baked pasta
Rosa has been rolling spinach and chicken rolls on the back bench since 1998, and the spiral is the same width now as it was then. The hero rolls, the stromboli, the baked pasta and the zeppole are all hers. She is unmoved by requests to make the rolls larger.
Here since 2021
Danny Okafor
Slice counter and deliveries
Danny runs the slice counter through both rushes and coordinates the delivery riders. He is the person who will tell you honestly that the tray you are looking at came out twenty minutes ago and that a fresh one is eight minutes away, which is a small thing that a surprising number of shops will not do.
Languages at the counter
Between the six of them: English, Spanish, Italian. Woodside is one of the most linguistically mixed square miles in the country and a pizzeria that cannot take an order in Spanish is not really open to its own neighbourhood.
- English
- Spanish
- Italian
Who to ask for
Catering, or a date that matters
Nina. She keeps the book and she will tell you when a Saturday is full.
An allergen question
Anybody, and then read the allergens page. Nobody here will guess at an answer.
How long that tray has been out
Danny. He will give you the number.
Anything about the Italian pies
Marco, if he can hear you over the oven.
Twelve to fifteen minutes, and worth the wait
Order a pie
Telephone the shop and we will tell you honestly how long the kitchen is running before you commit to anything. Collection is always quicker than delivery and the pizza is always better for it. If you are ordering for a crowd, the catering page has the trays and the notice we need.