A New York City restaurant is taking its pizza to the next level.
Don Antonio offers 45 different types Neapolitan pizza, served up from within its cozy storefront in Hell’s Kitchen. Owned and operated by Giorgia Caporuscio, the store was originally run by her father Roberto when it started in 2012.
I come from a small town between Rome and Naples called Terracina. I did the Culinary High School, I didn’t have any idea of what was in my future, but my father was already here [in New York],” said Caporuscio.
Caporuscio recalls that when she came to work with her father, she was around 19 or 20 years old, and the men she was working with would make fun of her, saying that she couldn’t make pizza.
“Everybody was like, ‘Oh, you don’t know how to make pizza. You don’t know how to make pasta.’ So I started to make pizza just to show them that I can make better pizza,” said Caporuscio. “And I fell in love with it, I think it was in my blood.”
Caporuscio has since taken the helm of Don Antonio in the past year. The restaurant prides itself on using authentic Italian ingredients to make their dishes.
“So 98% of our food is imported from Italy. They have the best quality ingredients for the pizza, that has been key for us. It was really important to give the customers the right ingredients and the same taste that you can find in Italy,” said Caporuscio. “The menu is huge because I try to give the customers a lot more options. I measure and create all the pizzas we make with the taste of the food or the ingredients because I don’t want ingredients over the palate of the other one. If you try a slice of margarita pizza, you need to taste the tomato that is coming from Italy. You need to taste the mozzarella. For me, it’s really important to have the right ingredients.”
Don Antonio has an expansive menu of pizzas, all of which can be made gluten free upon request. The restaurant’s claim to fame, however, is a classic Italian street food: fried pizza.
Also known as pizza fritta, fried pizza, as the name suggests, takes a different route in the traditional pizza-making process. After the dough is rolled out, it is dropped in a deep fryer for a couple of minutes before being pulled out and covered with toppings, finishing its cook in the wood-burning oven.
“So pizza fritta, or fried pizza, is one of the oldest pizza that was created in Naples. If you go to Naples, you can get a fried cone on the street, grab and go, like here you have a slice of New York-style grab and go pizza,” said Caporuscio. “For us, it was something unique that nobody thinks to make because they say fried food is not healthy, it’s greasy.”
The result? A crispy, fluffy pizza that doesn’t feel greasy. The menu staple has been a popular choice among Don Antonio’s customers, and is the first to be recommended.
“For new customers coming into Don Antonio, the first pizza that our servers suggest all the time is the Montanara [pizza fritta] because it’s a pizza that will change your perspective about pizza and fried food.”
Caporuscio wants her customers to feel completely at home when they visit Don Antonio, but she’d also like them to be able to walk away with a completely unique experience.
“I think that is my experience that I try to give our customers every day, every time they come in, they feel home, but also they feel something special,” said Caporuscio. “When I was a kid going to a restaurant, it was something that we would go do for a special occasion. I don’t want to do that. I want the customers to feel special but also I want them to feel at home.”
Don Antonio is located at 309 W 50th St. For more information about Don Antonio, visit donantoniopizza.com.
