Americano Pizza Shop opens in Syosset

Since he started making pizza professionally three years ago, Vinny Corrao has operated an Americano Pizza Trailer, an Americano Pizza Truck and, since Feb. 9, the Americano Pizza Shop in Syosset, his first enterprise with a fixed location.

In 2023, the insulation-materials salesperson was looking for a way to earn some extra money and so he bought a flatbed trailer, loaded it up with a wood-burning oven and hit the party circuit. He discovered Long Islanders loved the convenience of "having the pizza come to them." A year later, he sold the trailer and upgraded to a fully outfitted truck.

Corrao was soon catering up to five parties per weekend. But between his full-time job and all the pre-weekend prep work, something had to give. "It was decision time," he said. "I had to sell or grow. So I left my job and went all-in with pizza."

As a mobile pizzaiolo, Corrao made tender, puffy-rimmed 12-inch Naples-style pies in a wood- burning oven. When he settled down in Syosset, he switched to a classic 18-inch, New York pie sold either whole or by the slice. This necessitated a change in technique, but one thing he didn’t change was the use of sourdough — a pre-fermented starter that boosts flavor and texture while it helps to leaven the crust.

"If I didn’t do sourdough," he noted, "I’d be like every other pizza shop."

On Long Island, sourdough does tend to be the province of "artisanal" pizzerias such as Anna in Woodbury and Via Cuma in Valley Stream, but Dario’s in Hempstead and Mozzafiato in Centereach are two slice shops that use it as well.

Americano’s pizzas are topped with restraint — the tomato sauce is clean and tangy; there will be no cheese sliding off your slice — and the crust is crisp and thin, except for around the blistered edge, where you can really taste the results of the sourdough, the high hydration and the long, cool fermentation.

For now, the menu is short and sweet. Available whole ($25 to $33) or by the slice ($4 to $5.50) are nine pies: regular, Margherita (with both fresh and low-moisture mozzarella), white, red and white (sauce and burrata), Bee Sting (sauce, mozzarella, pepperoni, hot honey, ricotta), Big Vin (sauce, mozzarella, pepperoni, crumbled sausage), Sweet Heat (sauce, mozzarella, sausage, hot cherry peppers, hot honey), Fig & Pig (mozzarella, prosciutto, fig jam) and Shroom (mozzarella, mushrooms, truffle oil).

Americano takes over the small storefront that had housed two concepts from Luca Pizzuti: first, Aqua e Farina, a wood-fired pizzeria that opened in 2018, followed by Pinsa, a successor specializing in the eponymous Roman flatbread that opened in 2024 and closed last year.

Americano Pizza Shop, 43 Berry Hill Rd., Syosset, 516-226-1523, americanopizza.com. Open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday.