Vincent's NYWF Pizza opening in St. James

After more than six years of operating pizza trucks, Vincent DeMarzo is putting down roots, sort of. He is adding a third truck to his Vincent’s NYWF Pizza fleet and parking it, permanently, at a property that he and his wife, Andrea, bought in St. James. He’ll still be making pies and serving from a truck, but all prep, marketing and sales operations will be conducted from a former lawyer’s office at the corner of Lake and Woodlawn avenues. There will be a limited number of seats inside (as well as restrooms) but the corner lot has plenty of space for outdoor tables.

DeMarzo has spent the last three years transforming the freestanding office into a "wet" location that can accommodate a kitchen with all its plumbing, sewage and ventilation needs. Because the pizza-truck business slows down considerably during cold weather, he’s planning on getting all his organization and staffing ducks in a row before launching the new configuration in the spring.

The first Vincent’s NYWF truck, 22 feet long with a wood-burning oven (NYWF stands for New York Wood-Fired), has been stationed in the parking lot of the Long Island Health & Racquet gym on Mark Tree Road since November 2020. A year later, he added a second truck that moves around the Island and is available for private events.

Vincent’s menu features 10 12-inch specialty pies ($18 to $23), such as the restrained Queens pie (with crushed tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and basil), the exuberant Brooklyn (crumbled sausage, broccoli rabe, hot cherry peppers, fresh mozzarella and red sauce), the out-there Suffolk (blue cheese, Buffalo-chicken bites and mozzarella), the even-further-out-there Nassau (chicken bites tossed in homemade barbecue sauce topped with melted Cheddar and Jack cheeses and pickled red onions) and the only-on-Long Island L.I.B.E.C., that’s right, a bacon, egg and cheese pizza with, wait for it, an everything-bagel crust.

You can also get a plain cheese or Margherita ($15, $17) with your choice of toppings, as well as Caesar salad and pasta e fagioli.

The impetus for the St. James venture came a few years ago when DeMarzo heard that the East Setauket location might be in jeopardy. "There was a scare at the gym," he recalled. "It looked like they were going to sell to a storage place and I didn’t know what would happen to me." As it happened, the gym didn’t sell but, "Andrea and I said, ‘Hey, we gotta find a property somewhere that we can own.’ "

And, this summer, his lease did end. While Oct. 8 will be the truck’s last day at the gym, he is finalizing a new site for it in the East Setauket area. Follow @vincents_nywf_pizza on Instagram for updates.

Once St. James opens, all three trucks will be parked there. The new one, all 30 tricked-out feet of it, will not budge, but the other two will stand ready to be sent to any party or event that needs great pizza.