“Life is all about new adventures,” Paul says. “So we jumped all-in.”
“Neither one of us ever owned a pizzeria before, but my son Vinny has been in the restaurant and pizzeria business for fifteen years,” Debi says. “He always wanted to run his own kitchen and I knew he was a great cook. He had no idea what we were up to, but after one phone call, he was sold. Vinny relocated from Florida to come help us open and run our new business, Mozzarella’s.”
Mozzarella’s just opened its doors in the Market Common last month. The restaurant seats about forty people inside, and has a small outdoor patio space.
The upbeat eatery serves traditional Italian and specialty pizzas, including Sicilian, pan and thin-crust pizzas, calzones, strombolis, wings, and hot and cold subs. Vinny makes Mozzarella’s marinara sauce, meatballs, and dough from a combination of family recipes and his own experience.
“We buy quality, top-of-the-line ingredients and cheeses to make our menu items,” Debi says. “All of our recipes are our own. We’re part Italian, so we drew upon our heritage in forming our menu. It’s a very simple and basic family style menu. But what makes us different is that everything on our menu can be converted into a low-carb item.”
Two years ago, Debi began to follow a ketogenic diet for health reasons. Ketogenics eliminates sugar, processed foods, wheat, grains, and flour from your diet, and provides guidelines for managing your proteins, fats and carbohydrates.
“There are no nitrates or GMOs. It’s a clean, whole foods-based diet,” Debi says. “I traveled a lot for work and could never find clean food to eat other than salads and basic meats. I learned how to keto-ize everything, even Italian food. Paul and I eat this way all the time.
“With Mozzarella’s, we wanted to incorporate this way of cooking our food into the traditional pizzeria menu — and introduce this way of eating to others. People think it’s hard, but it’s really not.”
