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Second-Generation Pizza Maker Looks to Carry on Family Tradition in Village

By Danielle Tcholakian | May 30, 2014 12:26pm | Updated on June 2, 2014 8:13am
Anthony Catalino's Indiegogo Video
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Indiegogo/Anthony Catalino

GREENWICH VILLAGE — A Village resident hopes to bring a taste of his father's pizza to the neighborhood.

Anthony Catalino, 32, is raising money to open a pizzeria in the Village, inspired by his father's Savario's, a restaurant in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, that the family launched in 1990.

"I grew up there," Catalino said. "It opened when I was 9. It was a rough start for my father because he's not really a businessman, but it's a staple in [Portsmouth] now."

Catalino wants to recreate his father's small-town focus on customer service and his emphasis on making dishes from scratch in small batches, to preserve the quality.

"That's my focus, is to bring back that mom-and-pop-style business to the Village," Catalino said. 

Catalino has lived in the Village since he moved to New York City from Los Angeles nearly a decade ago, while he worked as a waiter and manager in restaurants including Jean-Georges.

He has not yet signed a lease for his new restaurant, which he plans to name Savario's, but he has already started gathering investors and is currently running an Indiegogo campaign to raise money for equipment. The campaign had raised only about $4,000 of his $100,000 goal as of Friday, but Catalino said it had helped spread the word.

"It belongs in the Village," Catalino said of the new Savario's. "I love the community there, and all the people I can't wait to entertain."

Catalino is still in the early stages of planning the eatery but he hopes to have an open kitchen and to offer beer and wine. 

His goal, he said, is to develop a neighborhood spot, "where everyone's a regular, everyone's treated like a regular."

Catalino's Indiegogo campaign ends on June 2.