The beloved Lucia Pizza of Avenue X is making its Manhattan debut at 375 Canal Street in Soho this fall. This will be the year and a half old pizzeria shop’s second outpost.
Founder and chef Salvatore Carlino is a second-generation southern Brooklyn pizzeria owner. His parents, who are Sicilian and Greek immigrants, opened Papa Leone’s Pizzeria in Manhattan Beach four decades ago. It has since shut down. Following in their footsteps Carlino created his own shop, which debuted in January 2022 at 2201 Avenue X in Sheepshead Bay. Despite being difficult to get to, it quickly garnered attention and earned a review from New York Times critic Pete Wells. Lucia Pizza is one of a few popular pizzeria’s moving to Manhattan this year, alongside Williamsburg’s L’Industrie Pizza.
“The Soho location is the beginning of a new adventure [in] a new landscape,” Carlino tells What Now New York. “We’ve always been developing things within the shop that are conducive to scale. We want to showcase that scale doesn’t sacrifice quality.”
However, the choice to stay in Sheepshead Bay was a toss up for him. He knew all too well from his family’s experience that opening up shop in the outskirts came with its own set of challenges. With leases falling through left and right he decided to take a chance on Sheepshead Bay, and he doesn’t regret it at all.
“I’m grateful that we’ve been able to make such an impact in such a small amount of time,” he says. “Now, most days, I think about the beauty and grace that’s within Sheepshead that maybe more people get to see and experience now because of Lucia. [It] means the world to me.”
Carlino says his love of cooking came about from working at his parent’s shop, however he didn’t initially plan on pursuing a career in hospitality. Prior to opening his pizza venture, he was living in Berlin hoping to become a full-time musician.
“It was important to me when I got back into cooking that I would do it on my own,” he says. “However, of course, when I need guidance there’s no [one] better for me to ask than them.”
Lucia Pizza bills itself as beckoning back to the old mom-and-pop shop days but with a modern twist. It has various 18-inch pies garnished with basil and pecorino, ranging from staple plain ($18.50) and margherita ($20) pies to specialities like his Papa Leone Vodka pie ($22) made with his parent’s homemade recipe that dates back to 1974, and a Sicilian street-style Cudduruni pie ($22) made with anchovies, sauce and gaeta olives. It also offers 16-inch square pizzas ($18), calzones ($14), chicken and eggplant parm heroes and plates ($12-$18), classic sides like garlic knots ($6), mozzarella sticks ($10), house salad ($11) and caesar salad ($15), and sweets like his mom’s tiramisu ($8) and tartufo ($8).
