It’s an irony of the business world that publicity sometimes blossoms for companies that don’t really need it, because they’re already doing as well as they might wish. That is the case for a popular Kingston-area restaurant: A Slice of Italy, which is located on Route 9W steps away from its intersection with Route 209 in Lake Katrine. The place already has a loyal following of regulars, plus a steady flow of new visitors referred by the cluster of hotels nearby.
Owners Marine and Angelo DiPaolo and their youngest son, Angelo Jr., all put in more hours every week than they would prefer, and rarely take a vacation. “Since COVID we can’t hire help. Nobody applies,” Angelo Sr. explains, calling the restaurant’s success “a double-edged sword for us.” And now they’re about to get put into the national spotlight.
As HV1 paid a visit last week, the DiPaolo family and their staff were busier than ever, gearing up for the arrival on the morning of August 30 of a video crew from America’s Best Restaurants. It’s a marketing website for the food service industry that specializes in creating video features on individual restaurants all over America and posting them on YouTube.
“Somebody has to nominate you to be on the show. We don’t know who,” says Marine. “Most of them are out West… I haven’t found one yet in the Hudson Valley.” Among the New York State eateries featured on the website is Buffalo’s legendary Anchor Bar, purported birthplace of Buffalo wings.
The DiPaolos never expected to find themselves in such lofty company, and the prospect of being filmed in action is “both nervewracking and exciting,” Angelo Jr. says. The day of filming was scheduled to begin with interviews in the early morning, followed by action sequences of the chefs at work on some of their best-loved menu items.
One of the featured dishes will be Ang’s Fig Pizza. “It has prosciutto and fig bits in it. He saw the menu and thought that was unique to us,” says Angelo Sr., who does most of the cooking himself. Also in the TV spotlight will be A Slice of Italy’s Chicken Medley: “chicken cutlets broiled – just to get that char flavor – and then sautéed, with onions, garlic, mushrooms and broccoli…and also the Italian Casserole, which is everybody’s favorite.”
Marine, who mainly runs the catering end of the business, has also been asked to demonstrate her specialty dish: cannoli with a variety of flavored fillings, such as banana, peanut butter and cappuccino. She makes them only rarely, as a special; but when she does, longtime customers will travel great distances to obtain their share. “They come from Virginia, from Florida, all over the place,” says Angelo Jr. Last year, Marine’s gourmet cannoli were featured in 125 Years of Good, a cookbook published by the distributor Gordon Foods Service.
Watching how Angelo Sr. interacts with his patrons offers a clue that the quality of the food isn’t the only reason why, in his words, “We serve mostly regulars. We know what they want to order before they sit down. We have wonderful customers.”
Some of that loyal base dates back to A Taste of Italy’s earlier incarnation as Four Seasons Pizza, located on Ulster Avenue “where Social Services is now” and in operation from 1980 to 1988. Before that, the family business was an arcade in the building next door, called Funway Amusements. They decided to open a pizzeria because, in Marine’s words, “We were hungry because we were stuck there all day long,” and there weren’t many eateries nearby in those days.
Running a restaurant was a learn-as-you-go process for the DiPaolo family. “I have no formal training,” says Angelo Sr. “I was born in Amorosi, Italy. My mother and I made pizzas just about every Friday night. We bought the dough from a local bakery… The dough was really difficult to stretch. We had to stand one on one side, one on the other.” The pies they made were “Grandma style,” using fresh local tomatoes, and baked “very similar to what a brick-oven pizza looks like over here.”
That hands-on childhood experience taught Angelo that it’s the process of handling dough, rather than the ingredients, that determines the thickness and texture of a pizza crust. “It comes down to the process by which you raise the dough: the amount of time, the amount of yeast.” He says that he can make a pie any way you like. “It’s not an easy thing to learn, but we mix and match whatever the customer wants.”
The slice we sampled on our visit was thin-crusted, on the crispy side, and absolutely loaded with gooey cheese. The sauce had a tang of tomato but wasn’t overly pungent. The family takes pride in their low-sodium policy of cooking, noting that salt is easier to add than to take out. “A lot of pizzas in the area are very, very salty. I try not to do that,” Angelo says.
Though their first foray into the business was running a pizzeria, the family thinks of A Slice of Italy as primarily a restaurant for sit-down dinners. The dining room is spacious and comfortable, and there’s a sizable bar for the evening crowd. They’ve had some second thoughts about how they named the place, according to Angelo. “We did not explain it well enough,” he says, pointing to a spot on the map depicted in the business’ logo. “I was born there, and I came to America. A piece of Italy is missing, and that’s me.”
After this week, this missing piece of Italy who landed in Lake Katrine, married a local girl, raised a family, opened one business and then learned another seems likely to find himself in an unaccustomed limelight. Stop in, get to know them and have a great meal. And if you’re looking for a job in the restaurant business, definitely let them know.
A Slice of Italy is located at 1316 Ulster Avenue, across 9W from the Staples plaza. It’s open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday, closed on Sundays. For more information, call (845) 336-7115 or 7100 or visit www.asliceofitaly7115.com. When completed, the video profile by America’s Best Restaurants will be posted at https://americasbestrestaurants.com/rests/new-york/a-slice-of-italy.
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