Tony’s Pizza has reopened under new management, with plans to continue offering fresh, Italian-style pizza.
Owners Michael Fiumara and Steven Frankenbach purchased the business earlier this year.
Fiumara said the pair grew up together, and decided to purchase the property after he was laid off from a finance position in North Carolina.
“Steve calls me up, he’s like, ‘do you want to play golf?’ and I was like, ‘yeah, I’m actually playing with my whole office. We all got laid off.’ As we were playing golf, everybody was talking about what’s the next step and this and that, he was like, ‘there’s a pizzeria for sale in Stuart,’” Fiumara said.
Fuimara, whose family owned a pizzeria in Long Island, said it was always something he wanted to try doing. As a result, the duo decided to look into getting into the business.
Frankenbach said the two considered purchasing Leonardo’s on Main Street first, but decided to look into Tony’s instead after starting contract negotiations.
The closed on the property in February, “so it’s been five months of renovations we’re doing, trying to get everything up to the new code because we’re not grandfathered in anymore,” Fuimara said.
The eatery received its food license about two weeks ago and was able to open in early July, Fuimara said.
“We tried to do kind of a soft opening because we really didn’t want to be overwhelmed. We really didn’t post anything online, or there’s no sign out front that says we’re open. Our first day was Wednesday, July 3, and we’ve been slammed ever since,” he said, with a laugh.
So far, Fuimara said he believes everyone’s been happy with the food, and the community response has been positive.
“We’ve been open five days and we’ve seen people come in three times already. It’s great. It’s nice to see the same person” come back to try different things, Fuimara said.
“A lot of repeat customers,” Frankenbach added.
“The community’s been great. For us not advertising I just couldn’t believe the amount of people that came in,” Fuimara said.
The restaurant offers a variety of 16-inch pizzas, slices of pizza, hot and cold subs, salads, appetizers, desserts, and drinks.
Fuimara said the pizzeria’s top sellers include the steak and cheese sub and meat lovers’ pizza.
“Lot of meat,” he said.
Fuimara noted owning the eatery as similar to what he remembers growing up in his family’s pizzeria.
“Nothing is really different. People order pies and we box and set it out. It’s all the same,” he said.
However, he said in Long Island pizzerias sold a lot more individual slices of pizza.
“We’re trying to get people used to that where if you’re waiting for a pie, or maybe too busy for a pie, maybe a few slices. We decided to do one size pie because of the slices, so if you want about two small pies then you could order three different slices and that takes care of it,” he said.
A happy issue is running out of food due to the high demand.
“We ran out of dough on Saturday, it’s hard to believe. We didn’t know what to expect,” Fuimara said, adding that the two are continuing to work out the kinks in terms of organizing when the food is being delivered and stocking up on enough supplies.
“Now, we know we need 10 boxes of steaks for steak and cheese,” he said. “Also, we’re prepping a lot of food, so that’s also part of the kind of judgment right now with how much food should we be prepping. That’s been a little bit of a challenge that I think we’re starting to figure it out.”
Frankenbach said they didn’t expect to be as busy as they are. The volume of customers “threw us off a little, that’s why we didn’t advertise too much. We’re trying to pump the break for ourselves and our employees. We don’t want to overwhelm everybody.”
Fuimara said everything that’s made at Tony’s is fresh.
“That’s the one thing I don’t want to give up. We make our own meatballs, we don’t use frozen meatballs; our own chicken cutlets, our own eggplant. The dough we’re making, the sauce we’re making, the marinara sauce we’re making. I’m a real stickler of that, I taste the difference right away, and I hope the community appreciates it,” he said.
Fuimara said providing fresh food costs more, but “I want to try and keep the good food, but if a pie is too expensive, that’s why we have slices. Try to keep it to serve everybody.”
Fuimara said the potential next venture for the business is expanding into the side room with a sports bar.
“We’ll have more draft beer, TVs everywhere, a few games – like a pool table, dartboard, we’ll see how that shakes out,” he said.
While they are unsure about holding a grand opening, Franckebach said he knows the Patrick County Chamber of Commerce wants to hold a ribbon cutting in the future.
The eatery is open Wednesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and on Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. To order online, go to tonyspizzastuart.com. For more information, go to Facebook.com/Tony’spizza.
