NEW DORP — For those curious what a pizza made by a caveman would taste like, they simply need to take a trip on the Staten Island ferry.
New Dorp Lane's Dominick’s Bakery & Cafe has added a Paleo menu featuring pizza, meatloaf, stuffed mushrooms, chicken Lo Mein and more — all made from ingredients our ancient ancestors could have found.
Owner Dominick DiLillo, 40, started with the Paleo pizzas in January, since expanding his menu to two pages of food that adhere to the diet — which shuns processed foods along with wheat and dairy and anything else developed by man during the agricultural revolution.
It uses only items that could have been found in prehistoric times — mainly meat, vegetables, fruit and nuts.
“The food is as delicious, if not more delicious, than our other food,” he said. “You’re still getting a great flavor.”
DiLillo has found ways to substitute the ingredients the diet prohibits.
“Everybody’s really embracing it, and everyone’s really enjoying it,” he said. “They’re really appreciative that we’re doing it.”
Aside from the prehistoric pizzas and meatloaf, DiLillo also whips up Paleo cookies, flat bread and homemade cereal — replacing wheat with almond flour.
And for those who don’t want to visit the shop — or live too far away — DiLillo will soon have you covered with a delivery option he’s working on.
After the Easter rush, he plans to launch Paleo-gram, which will ship ready-made caveman dishes to customers around the country.
“The biggest gripe is that we want to eat healthy, but you get home from work, you get home from the gym and there’s just no time,” DiLillo said.
“Now that we can start doing that, nobody has an excuse anymore.”
DiLillo also does something similar with his cannoli gram service, where customers can send the Italian pastry across the country. He said it shouldn’t be difficult switching the food.
DiLillo said he thought the back-to-basics cooking approach would be hard to adapt to his dishes, but was surprised by how easy it was.
“At the beginning I said to myself, ‘Oh, this is going to be a lot harder,’” he said. “But it’s really not, because it’s just a matter of knowing what we like and putting it together.”
DiLillo said the hardest part was getting the ingredients and meat — which have to be organic and come from animals that are grass-fed, according to the diet. Once he got those details arranged, the rest was easy, he said.
Since he started the diet himself, DiLillo said his energy has shot up. He's also lost 50 pounds.
"Once you drink the Kool-Aid, you’re addicted," he said.
