Amanda Oppedisano, Angelina Oppedisano, Nicoletta Sakellaridis, Cristina Sakellaridis. Courtesy The Forking Group Agency.
If it takes a village to raise a child, then in the city of Yonkers it has taken four cousins – that’s two sets of sisters – and a Neapolitan-born chef to open what they hope will be an “upscale casual” pizza restaurant with a “feel-good vibe” and “unique flavor combinations…promoting different, yet tasty specials to astonish the public.”
So said Nicoletta Sakellaridis, who with her sister Cristina and first cousins Amanda and Angelina Oppedisano have opened Italian Oven on the site of the former Fortina Italian restaurant.
The four are no strangers to the restaurant business, although this is their first venture together. Nicoletta and Cristina’s mother, Anna Maria Oppedisano, along with her brother, their uncle Pietro “Peter” Oppedisano, have owned restaurants in New York since 2020, including Trattoria 35 in Bayside, Queens; Slopes Restaurant in Tannersville, Greene County; and Churchill’s and Mangia Bene, both in Rockville Center, Long Island. All four cousins have worked at Mangia Bene since it opened in 2020, and Cristina Sakellaridis also has experience running her own hamburger place in Astoria, Queens.
But Yonkers is new territory for them, and Nicoletta conceded that while it had been “challenging” launching the business in an area they didn’t know, “it did all seem a tad simpler,” with less bureaucracy, than setting up in Queens or on Long Island.
Asked about how Italian Oven might stand out in crowded field of Italian – particularly pizza – restaurants in Westchester County, Nicoletta mentioned several features of the restaurant, starting with its conscious design, in particular the black-and-white checked floors, striking red and black furniture,and the “ginormous” mural of the foursome at the entrance, all of which set it apart. She said the two large, wood-fired pizza ovens added further appeal.
It is fair to say the restaurant has been conceived to stand out for its food, too. Pizzaiolo (pizza chef) Pasquale d’Ambrosio grew up in Pompeii, Italy, and moved to the United States in 2016. He learned the art of pizza-making at his father’s pizzeria in Naples, the birthplace of pizza, although some of the pizzas he is turning out in Yonkers, with truffle oil or honey topping, might raise an eyebrow in his native land. Other tricks of the trade: D’Ambrosio uses premium “Mulino Caputo” flour to make his dough, allowing it to rise and sit overnight and bakes it at around 750 degrees Fahrenheit.
Provision is made for gluten-free diners with dishes like the Italian Oven’s cauliflower-crusted gluten-free pizza, about which Nicoletta reported some customers saying it was “the best thing they have ever tried.”
Describing further initiatives that the “awesome foursome” (the Westchester County Business Journal’s phrase, not theirs), hope will make their new pizzeria stand out, Nicoletta said they want “to draw a bigger audience” with occasional live jazz and a monthly DJ night, mentioning the success of one they have already hosted, and an “Oktoberfest mini-menu,” with pumpkin beer and other specials for the fall and football season.
Asked how she envisaged working with her sister and cousins, and how harmonious an arrangement that was proving, Nicoletta was clear that she foresaw no issues. “We each grew up in an extremely close Italian household,” she said. “Our parents taught us from when we were young kids about communication, hard work and most importantly, family.”
Returning to the challenges faced by any new business, Nicoletta observed that going forward, the biggest was likely be consistency. She said there was “no room for mistakes or flaws,” ambitiously noting that there had to be “perfection” in all aspects, “food, music volume, seating arrangements, etcetera.”
“We can’t afford or leave any room for failure,” she reflected, “but we are all for the challenge as we are always willing to improve.”
