When Steve Mistretta first opened Frantoni’s Pizzeria & Ristorante on Hillside Avenue in Williston Park 25 years ago, it was a much simpler time in the pizza business.
In those days, Frantoni’s offered only four types of pie: regular, Sicilian, and the two newest types, white and broccoli spinach.
These days, Frantoni’s offers 37 different types on a steadily expanding menu that includes buffalo chicken, chicken vegetable, chicken parmigiana, eggplant riccotta, upside down Sicilian – and the most recent addition, chicken club.
“It’s about trying to stay ahead of people, inventing more styles so people keep coming back,” Mistretta said. “The possibilities are endless.”
He said he never figured on so many variations on the pizza theme when he started out.
But when he got into the business working in Cinelli’s Pizzeria in Franklin Square, he said he also didn’t anticipate that operating a pizza restaurant would become his career.
Mistretta was studying accounting at Nassau Community College while working at Cinelli’s when the owners decided to open a second location in Williston Park.
“They liked how I was, so they asked me to go in with them and expand,” he said.
Mistretta opened the new pizzeria at 73 Hillside Ave., across the street from Frantoni’s current location in 1988. Eight months later, his partners from Cinelli’s began to feel overextended, so Mistretta bought out their share of the business and renamed the pizzeria to honor his parents, Francesca and Antonio.
The restaurant moved to its current location at 66 Hillside Ave. in 1998.
His parents, Mistretta said, played parts in the pizzeria from the beginning, with his father helping to finance the buyout and his mother contributing recipes, including her marinara sauce. At 83 years old, his father still opens Frantoni’s every morning and helps set up for the day. His mother still makes rice balls and cheese cakes for Frantoni’s, which still uses her special recipes.
“My mother’s a really good cook so we use a lot of her recipes,” Mistretta said.
Some of her recipes are among the dishes Frantoni’s offers besides pizzas.
The first addition Frantoni’s made to its original four styles of pizza were his mother’s grandma pizza – a traditional Sicilian style – and the marinara it still serves. Frantoni’s started making the marinara pies, which remain among its most popular, after Antonio Mistretta suffered a heart attack and couldn’t eat cheese.
At 20, when the younger Mistretta became a partner and then owner of the pizzeria, it became a thoroughly family business as his brother Michael and his sister Donna began working with him.
“I pulled everyone in with me,” he said, smiling as he recalled the pizzeria’s beginnings.
Inventiveness is a key ingredient in the business, and for any pizzeria, Mistretta said, as well as location. But Mistretta said the most important elements in Frantoni’s continuing success are friendly service and quality food.
“If you mistreat customers or give them inferior products, they’re not going to come to you,” he said. “If I’m not going to feed it to my family, I’m not going to feed it to my customers.”
The aspect of the business Mistretta said he most enjoys is talking with his customers every day.
“Williston Park is a very nice neighborhood. There are very nice people here,” he said.
Apart from Williston Park, Mistretta said most of his business comes from East Williston, Mineola and Albertson.
Mistretta manages the Williston Park restaurant. His brother, Michael – who Steve praises for his culinary skills – runs a second Frantoni’s restaurant opened in East Meadows in 2008. His sister Donna splits her time between both locations.
As members of the Chamber of Commerce of the Willistons, the three siblings recently catered a joint event of the Chamber and the Williston Park Rotary Club when a tree was planted in honor of the late Nicholas “Bud” Haller at the village’s gazebo park.
To thank customers for their support over the past 25 years, Mistretta said, Frantoni’s is celebrating its anniversary in Williston Park this month by offering special prices, including regular pizzas for $10, heroes for $5 and reduced prices on all pizza slices through Oct. 15.
