Da Angelo’s Pizza in Albertson a family affair

Richard Tedesco

When Angelo Giangrande came to this country from his native Sicily in the early 1970s, he was just looking to make a living.

Now he owns his own pizzeria, Da Angelo’s, a family business where three generations regularly converge.

Giangrande said he had always enjoyed cooking, so he took a job at a pizzeria in Port Washington in 1972 and learned how to make pizza. He later worked for Umberto Creteo at Umberto’s Pizzeria & Restaurant in New Hyde Park for 10 years, honing his craft.

It will be 11 years in January when Giangrande, who claims to be one of the originators of the Grandma pizza, opened his own place at his current location at 815 Willis Avenue.

“To me it means a lot. When you come from another country and you started from scratch, it’s like a dream. It makes you proud,” he said.

The 55-year-old Giangrande also is proud that so many of his family members are sharing in his success. His brother Salvatore works as a cook at Da Angelo’s. Giangrande’s son, Stefano, works the counter, and his daughters Danielle and Elisa help out in the office and as waitresses. Angelo has already taught his three-year-old grandson Jaden, Danielle’s son, to make a pizza

“He always liked to play with the dough. Finally he can reach the milk crates,” he said, so Jaden makes his own little pies and his grandfather puts it in the oven for him. “Then when it’s ready, I cut it up for him and he eats.”

Stephano, 30, has been working in the restaurant since he was 13, and said he enjoys working with his father.

“I love it. I love the business. Every day is a different day,” Stephano said.

It’s often a grueling routine of 12-hour days, but Giangrande knew about that already, and he still enjoys his work.

“I do something that I really like. I’m around people and friends. I’ve made a lot of friends in this business over the years,” he said, adding that he’s got good customers and a good location.

His Neapolitan pizza is his biggest seller, followed by his own variation on the Grandma pie – so-called because it is made with a thin crust and a balance of tomato and cheese like traditional pizzas in Italy years ago. Some of his mother’s recipes filter through the full menu of Italian pasta, veal, chicken, and seafood dishes that Da Angelo’s offers, but Giangrande said he adapts them to American tastes.

“You make them happy,” he said, estimating that Da Angelo’s sells 200 pizzas on a typical Friday night.

His own Grandma style pizza is made with whole milk and part-skim mozzarella and uses crushed canned tomatoes for the sauce.

“We all come up with new ideas. We made it a different way,” he said, referring to the numerous variations the traditional style has spawned.

Giangrande lives in Mineola now. But he maintains the connection to his home town of Monreale in Sicily, where he has uncles and aunts and cousins who he visits.

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