By Kathianne Boniello
Centre Pizza has been serving up family-style fare in Little Neck since the mid-1960s, but in the last few months the small Italian eatery has been transformed by new ownership and a new look.
Owners Paul DePaulis, of Long Island and Joe LaRocca, of College Point, took over the space at 254-25 Horace Harding Expressway earlier this year and have wasted no time in refurbishing both the menu and the dining room.
“It’s definitely been a warm welcome,” DePaulis said of the community’s reaction to the new ownership. “Everybody has open arms.”
LaRocca said the positive reception the revamped Centre Pizza has gotten “motivates you to do more for the people.”
DePaulis and LaRocca took over the tiny eatery about four months ago when the previous owner died, they said. That family had owned the shop for about 40 years, they said.
Since then the pair have expanded the menu to include a wide variety of gourmet pizzas and Italian dishes as well as coffee, cappuccino and homemade desserts.
“People can come in and get a full course meal and dessert,” DePaulis said. “We also do delivery.”
A monthlong renovation allowed the new owners to rebuild the pizzeria’s dining room, adding a new floor, ceiling and walls. The space now creates a comfortable, quiet place for customers to sit down and enjoy food, LaRocca said. He said the pair also added new equipment and bathrooms.
“We were closed for about a month” for the renovation, he said. “Now we’re wheelchair accessible and always kid friendly.”
An expanded menu has given customers another reason to come out and discover the longtime pizza shop all over again, the pair said.
Whether it is a thick slice of Sicilian, a neatly wrapped spinach roll or a taste of the exotic chicken marsala pizza — with large chunks of chicken and mushrooms smothered with marsala sauce on top of a thin crust — the pizza alone is worth exploring.
The restaurant has a long list of pasta dishes to choose from, including the linguini marebello, which consists of pasta, fresh mussels, Little Neck clams, calamari and shrimp in marinara sauce. Salads, soups, heroes and sandwiches are available as well as a number of desserts.
Location has been key for Centre Pizza, which sits in a shopping center with a large parking lot at the intersection of the Long Island Expressway and Little Neck Parkway.
“In the summer the Hamptons traffic stops here,” LaRocca said.
But by far the one thing that has made the new Centre Pizza successful, the two said, has been the support of the community.
“Everybody feels like your next door neighbor here,” DePaulis said.
Reach reporter Kathianne Boniello by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 146.
